Menlo Advantage Winter 2016

S P E C I A L

F E A T U R E

BUSINESS & IMMIGRATION CONVERGE

MENLO advantage magazine WINTER 2016

NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH

Menlo College students and military veterans Evan Morsey ‘15 and Jeremiah Dinsmore ‘16

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Menlo College Ranked 6th in 2016 US News & World Report: Best College for Veterans

enlo College was recognized as one of the 2016 US News & World Report Best Colleges for Veterans. Menlo College is ranked sixth in the top-ranked schools in the Regional College West rankings.

In order to be eligible for consideration by the US News & World Report, Menlo College had to have been certified for the GI Bill and participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program.

The commitment Menlo College has for our country’s veterans was greatly assisted by the bequest of Warren Leslie Baker ’51, a resource manager with electric utility Exelon. When Baker passed away in 2013, he left over $100,000 for an endowed scholarship fund for veterans of the U.S. Military who attend Menlo College.

Evan Morsey is a veteran attending Menlo College. “I chose Menlo College for several reasons,” explained Morsey.

“Most importantly, I wanted to go to a college that stands out from other schools. I didn’t want to go to a college just to get some degree. I wanted a future after my military service. Menlo has always been on the top of my list.”

Morsey added, “Within only a year of attending the school, I knew the majority of the student body and was able to work with everyone very easily. I not only feel connected to students, but I feel like I am part of something. Every single person I’ve met has given me some kind of new insight on life. You get to connect with people from all over the world. Menlo College makes it really easy for students to get involved. I don’t have anything but praise for Menlo College.”

Jeremiah Dinsmore, also a veteran at Menlo College said, “I knew I wanted a business degree. The friendliness of the staff, the close student community, and the compact size of the campus make me feel at home at Menlo. The faculty at Menlo offer their personal time for oneon-one tutoring, and the rest of the staff is available with absolutely no wait time.

Having attended an overcrowded community college this was amazing to me.

I would recommend Menlo to any vet.

For myself, I am definitely thankful for the experience.”

Menlo College has participated in the Veteran Affairs’ (BA) Chapter 33 Post 9/11 GI Bill Yellow Ribbon program since the

2010-11 academic year. In addition to the program entitlement, students may be eligible to receive additional funding with a combination of the VA and institutional aid. Menlo College students also receive VA education benefits through the Chapter 35 Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA) program. For a more comprehensive explanation of benefits, visit www.va.gov.

Journalist Austin Walsh wrote a story in The Daily Journal titled "Menlo College creates safe space for veterans: Atherton college acknowledged as top school for those transitioning back into the local community." In his article he described Dinsmore, 29, as a vet who served in the Marines from 2005 to 2009, and toured Iraq as a sniper and Evan Morsey, a 27-year-old native of Los Altos as a former calvary scout in the Army who received a Purple Heart for the wounds he suffered in combat during his tours in Afghanistan. “What really helps them is Menlo being small,” said Associate Dean of Enrollment Management Priscila Casanova DeSouza, “Everyone is involved.”

The veterans were also the subject of a KGO 810 radio news talk show.

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EDITOR Darcy Blake

Counter-clockwise, Basketball players Jackie Bateman ’16, Aaliyah Sowards ’17, Breanna Turner ’17, Alyssa Gable ’19, Emma Pastorino ’17, Lauren Piner ’19, and Sophie Seigning Faumete ’18 at OAKtoberFest 2015

Table of Contents

1 NEWS FLASH | Menlo College Ranked 6th in 2016 US News & World Report for Best College for Veterans 3 PRESIDENT | News from President Richard A. Moran 4 BOARD OF TRUSTEES | News from the Board of Trustees 6 OAKtoberFest | President's Address 6 OAKtoberFest | A Tribute to Dorothy Skala 9 OAKtoberFest | Carlos López Memorial Soccer Tournament

10 OAKtoberFest | Campus Store 11 OAKtoberFest | Professors Eggers, Michelson, Sekerka Discuss Research 12 FACULTY | Professor Leslie Sekerka’s book Being a Better Bear 13 FACULTY | Provost Terri Givens and Professors Fatien, Medlen, and Justman 14 FACULTY | Professor Jodie Austin 15 FACULTY | Professor Marianne Marar Yacobian 16 FACULTY | Professor Jeannice Fairrer Samani 17 Postmaster Rick Edge and Dr. Marianne Neuwirth 18 Menlo College’s International Connections | Pam Gullard 19 BUSINESS & IMMIGRATION CONVERGE | A Special Insert by

Professor Pam Gullard, Provost Terri Givens, and Professor Melissa Michelson 26 Menlo Connect Day 29 ALUMNI | Alumni Offer a Glimpse of the Future in Life After Graduation 30 LIBRARY | Bowman Library Gets a Refresh 32 Hawaiian Luau on April 16 33 ALUMNI | Women’s Business Society Alumni Car Show | April 2 34 STUDENT AFFAIRS |Kawasaki Welcomed at Women’s Business Society 35 STUDENT AFFAIRS | Women Empowered at Menlo College 36 Steven Lee Myers Discusses The New Tsar and Menlo Oak Press 37 Writing and Oral Communication Center Expands Support for Students 39 Zach Osborne Discusses his Role as Director of Internships 40 ALUMNI | Notes 42 ALUMNI | Spotlight on Phil DurBrow, Alan Reid, and Joel Harper 45 Honoring Commencement Speakers and Honorees 2000–2015 46 ALUMNI | Memoriam

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Richard A. Moran, Terri Givens, Darcy Blake, Melissa Michelson, Pamela Gullard, Linda Smith, Jodie Austin, Leslie Sekerka, Marianne Marrar Yacobian, Tina Fairbairn, Erik Bakke, Aaron Gillespie, Katie Caliendo, Zach Osborne, Taylor Morrow '16, Enrique Guzman-Alvarez ‘15 DESIGN Darcy Blake PHOTOGRAPHY & GRAPHICS Darcy Blake, Andrey Poliakov, Oakssports.com, Jio Castro, Katie Caliendo, Tom Haflinger ‘07 EDITORS Pamela Gullard, Linda Smith, Linda Teutschel CONTRIBUTORS Angela Schmiede, Kalea Gabriel ‘16, Phil Durbrow ‘60, Alan Reid ‘87, Joel Harper, Pauline Fatien, Craig Medlen Harold Justman, Marianne Neuwirth, Ashley Diamond ‘15, Antonio Maluyo ‘16, Natalie Leesakul ‘16 COLLEGE PRESIDENT Richard A. Moran BOARD OF TRUSTEES T. Geir Ramleth ‘87, Chair Charles “Chop” J. Keenan III ’66, Vice Chair Lee Caraher Andrea Cunningham Howard Dallmar ‘74 James A. Davlin Chris Garrett ‘94 Mike Gullard Richard Humphreys Sr. '67 David C. Irmer ‘58 Micah Kane ‘91 Harry W. Kellogg, Jr. ‘63 Connor Limont ‘75 Jordan Long '09 Larry Lopez ‘84 Tom Morehouse '62 James T. Rea ‘67 Tom Scannell

48 ATHLETICS | Operation Christmas Child and Champions of Character 49 ATHLETICS | Vegas Night April 9 50 ATHLETICS | Hall of Fame 51 ATHLETICS | Brian Brownfield Receives Oakland A’s Bill King Scholarship 46 ATHLETICS | Matt Lisle Named Softball Head Coach 53 ART COMMITTEE | Flat Worlds and Plein Air 56 STUDENT AFFAIRS | The Best Living Experience at Menlo College 2

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The Menlo Advantage, published by the Menlo College Office of the President, brings news of the College and its community to alumni, parents and friends.

1000 El Camino Real, Atherton, California 94027-4301 Tel: 800.55.MENLO Fax: 650.543.4102 dblake@menlo.edu, www.menlo.edu

FROM THE PRESIDENT

President Richard A. Moran calls the start on the 5K race at OAKtoberFest.

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My Sophomore Year–Full of Initiatives & Expectations

ach semester I welcome new students and their families into the Menlo College Community. The day is full of joy (from students), tears (from parents) and apprehension (from both groups!). I am now in my sophomore year as the President of Menlo College, and I continue to be impressed by our students, faculty, staff, and alumni; their commitment to the College is inspiring. One of my many roles as President is to be the Chief Expectation Setter–to be clear about what I expect from students. To that end, I welcome students with what I call The President’s Expectations and I want everyone to take note. I think the idea is taking hold.

The President’s Expectations: • Fall in love - with someone or something while you are a student at Menlo College • Stretch yourself – try something new, as there will never be a better time • Go to class - it is the one activity I know that helps with grades • Behave - this should be self explanatory • Get to know a faculty member - that’s why they are at Menlo • Stay in touch with your family - but not every five minutes • Be happy, enjoy the ride - college is a special time, don’t let it slip by These expectations are the right fit with the Menlo College experience.

Strategic Planning We are in the middle of a strategic planning initiative called “Five in Five.” When complete, it contains the five initiatives that will be the primary areas of focus for the College over the next five years: 1. Raise the academic profile and areas of distinction. How do we become a “premier” college?

2. S hare the news. How do we build our reputation in higher education?

3. E nhance the student experience.

How do we educate the well-rounded individual for leadership in the changing world?

4. Improve our facilities and prioritize building for the future.

5. Ensure financial stability.

The formulation of the plan is still in process and it will be rolled out to all constituents when complete.

Enrollment Stretch The final enrollment count for Fall Semester 2015 was 768 students. Just five years ago, enrollment was only 590.

The Menlo College value is being recognized.

New Board Members Added Three alumni have joined our Board of Trustees, enriching the Board and elevating Menlo’s profile. Welcome to Chris Garrett, Connor Limont, and Larry Lopez.

[Read about the new Trustees on page 5.]

Library Upgrades We just completed a major re-fresh of the library. [Read about the library upgrade on page 30.]

Campus Store and Landscape Upgrades The Campus Store remodel is complete.

It is the design of two of our marketing students, Alexa Ledesma ‘15 and Max Wyzard ‘15, under the direction of Professor McCabe. We are also reconfiguring outdoor spaces on campus, developing common areas for study or social life. The new open area in front of the Library is an example.

Our Hollywood Connection The spotlight was on Menlo Trustee Andy Cunningham when her contribution to the launch of the digital revolution as one of the first employees of Apple Inc. was captured in the recent Steve Jobs film. The release of the movie provided many opportunities for us to herald the convergence of a Menlo College trustee and Hollywood!

Nearly two years have gone by since I became President of Menlo College. I am pleased to share some of the initiatives I’ve launched to help Menlo become the best small college in the West.

Sincerely,

President Richard A. Moran MENLO COLLEGE

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Trustee Cunningham Puts Menlo College in the News

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hree press releases in the fall semester featured Trustee Andy Cunningham.

• Our press release regarding her portrayal in the film Steve Jobs (“Menlo College Trustee Andy Cunningham Portrayed In Steve Jobs Film”) was picked up by 258 online publications, including The Boston Globe, the Miami Herald, and the Star Tribune, as well as local publications such as the San Jose Mercury News and The Sacramento Bee

Menlo College Trustee Andy Cunningham Portrayed in Steve Jobs Film

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enlo College Trustee and Palo Alto resident Andrea “Andy” Cunningham is a strategic marketing and communications expert who worked as a publicist for Steve Jobs.

The recent film Steve Jobs is a portrayal of the late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. Written by Aaron Sorkin, the film stars Michael Fassbender as Jobs. In the movie, actress Sarah Snook portrays Cunningham and shows her pivotal contributions to the launch of the Macintosh in 1984.

When Jobs left Apple to form NeXT and acquire Pixar, he chose Cunningham’s public relations agency, Cunningham Communication, to represent him. She continued to work with Jobs for several years. She has developed marketing, branding, and communication strategies for game-changing technologies and companies ever since.

Cunningham said she was “hired and fired four or five times” by Jobs during the 1980s, when she worked with him during the formation of NeXT, and as he acquired and then transformed Pixar from a hardware company to an animation company.

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Watching the film, she revealed that she was, “transfixed, involved, committed, and feeling as if I were there again.”

Cunningham is the founder and CEO of Cunningham Collective, an innovationto-market consultancy. She has worked with hundreds of leaders similar to Jobs.

She points to three who embody some

Three [leaders] who embody some of the “think different” traits Jobs had: • Reed Hastings of Netflix • Brian Chesky of Airbnb • Josh Tetrick of Hampton Creek” ~Andy Cunningham of the “think different” traits Jobs had: Reed Hastings of Netflix, Brian Chesky of Airbnb and Josh Tetrick of Hampton Creek.

“They are bold and brave and do what it takes to change the world. They don’t care what people think about them and they innovate in different ways,” said Cunningham.

• The College posted a second story about an event she produced (“Menlo College Trustee Andy Cunningham Among Women of Influence”) – an event that was packed with legends of the computer world, including Andy Hertzfeld, Guy Kawasaki, and Bud Tribble; on LinkedIn alone, the article received 3,382 hits.

• Finally, we produced a story about her speech at our 2015 winter commencement (“Brand Strategist Andy Cunningham Speaks at Menlo College Winter Commencement”) that included quotes from her talk entitled “How will the world be different because of you?”

We are grateful to Trustee Cunningham for providing Menlo College opportunities that have added up to an extended campaign of good branding.

SAVE THE DATE Wine Writers Roundtable FEB 24

Menlo College Welcomes New Trustees CONGRATULATIONS MENLO COLLEGE TRUSTEES Chris Garrett ’94 | Larry Lopez ’84 Mary Connor Limont ’75

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hree candidates were appointed as trustees of the College effective January 2016.

Chris Garrett ‘94 Chris Garrett is founder and CEO of Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company, a regional brewing company based in San Carlos, CA. His background spans agribusiness, internet technologies, beverage manufacturing, sustainability, consumer product goods, design, construction, and community stewardship.

Chris Garrett ‘94

Over the course of his career, he has held executive roles in a number of startup internet ventures, including Disney Internet Group and RealNames Corporation (a Microsoft joint venture). He has also either partnered with or advised for The Can Van, Pure Energy Group, Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, Mavericks Brewing Company, Hop Dogma Brewing Company, Golden Star Tea Company, Curry County Grain Company, South City Cider Company, and numerous other green businesses and beverage companies.

Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company has been particularly successful, garnering awards for “Best Bay Area Brewpub” in 2015, “Best Bay Area Beer Bar” in 2014 and 2015, “Favorite Bay Area Brewery” in 2013 by San Francisco Bay Area A-List readers, “Best Beer” by San Francisco Business Journal readers in 2014, and over 35 commercial craft brewing awards. The brewery was also awarded first place from San Mateo County for their Culture of Reutilization Ethics (CORE) philosophy and practices, and was the San Carlos “Business of the Year.” He currently serves on the board of directors for a material recovery center in Portland, OR (Greenway Recycling).

Chris has been active in Menlo College alumni events on campus, most recently stepping up to help with the “Corks and Casks” event hosted at the President’s house last spring.

Mary Connor Limont ’75 Connor Limont was born and raised in the San Francisco area. She attended Menlo College for two years before she transferred to California Polytechnic State University. She received her BS in dietetics from Cal Poly in 1979. Following graduation from Cal Poly, Connor worked for Connor Limont ‘75

Servomation Corporation, where her clients included Florida International University, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. She subsequently held the position of controller for two advertising agencies. In 1986, Connor started working in the financial industry, before launching her own company, Limont Financial Services, which still active. In the intervening years, Connor served on several Palm Desert-area commissions and boards, including the Parks & Recreation Commission, the Landscape Beautification Commission, and the Planning Commission.

Connor has been a board member of Friends of the Desert Mountains, and is active with Menlo College alumni events in Southern California.

Larry Lopez ‘84 Larry Lopez is a partner at Australian Venture Consultants (AVC), a strategic consulting practice.

Larry is also a non-executive director of Jolimont Global Mining Systems, an Australian venture capital company focused on building technology companies that enable mining Larry Lopez ‘84 operations. In addition, he is a director of ZAP Technology Ltd., an Australian business intelligence software company with offices in San Francisco and London, and SayBubble, a privately-held internet company located in San Francisco. He is one of the founders of the ANZA Technology Network. He is also chairman of the Commercial Advisory Committee of the Australian National Center of Excellence in Desalination, and chairman of the Commercialization Advisory Board at Curtin University.

Following his graduation from Menlo College, Larry graduated from Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington. and interned at the Council for Inter-American Security in Washington, DC. Larry spent 17 years in senior and executive positions at Silicon Valley Bank before moving to Australia in 2006.

Among his many roles in leadership, Larry is the vice-chairman of the Institute for Immunology and Infectious Diseases, and a director of the McCusker Alzheimer’s Research Foundation.

Larry is the son of Carlos López, the seventh president of Menlo College (2004-2006), and has claims to Atherton’s history: Larry’s great-great-great-grandfather was Faxon Atherton, for whom the town of Atherton was named.

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A New Tradition: Menlo College OAKtoberFest

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t an early morning breakfast on the Menlo College Quad, President Richard A. Moran welcomed the audience to the festivities at OAKtoberFest, a family and alumni weekend at Menlo College. He described the two-day event as “a celebration of all that is good at Menlo College.”

The President recalled that every day he hears from students and alumni about how “Menlo College changed my life.” Stories include experiences of “Menlo mergers” where couples meet, and revelations about meeting personal goals, and discovering limits. “I can see lives changing,” he said. “Menlo College changes lives.”

He praised the “world-class” faculty responsible for the College’s AACSB accreditation, and the internship program that augments the in-class academic programs. He recognized the efforts of the admissions department for generating the highest enrollment that Menlo College has ever had. He proudly added that the College has zero debt.

President Moran predicted that the College will grow in facilities and faculty. Plans for improving campus facilities include making more common areas, and otherwise improving the on-campus experience for the entire community.

As the “steward of the College,” he vowed to ensure the 2027 centennial celebration of the founding of Menlo College will be a moment to celebrate all that has been achieved since 1927, as well as to celebrate the positioning of the institution to be even stronger when we celebrate the 200th anniversary in 2127.

He concluded with his expectation that each student and alumnus will be an ambassador. “Your major is minor,” he said, meaning that your choice of major does not have to dictate your career. “There is no path to a career. What matters is what you decide to do with your life. And don’t forget Menlo.”

SAVE THE DATE OAKtoberFest October 28-29, 2016

The Menlo Community gathered in the early morning for the 5K run at OAKtoberFest.

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A Tribute to Dorothy Skala at OAKtoberFest

L to R, Dorothy Skala, John Rooke, Andreas Strieve, and Greg Sondern give birthday greetings to retired staff member Dorothy Skala.

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t the OAKtoberFest celebration, you might have noticed several alumni on their knees paying their respects to Dorothy Skala, an 89-year-old icon of Menlo College.

Dorothy, a retired staff member who worked at Menlo College for over 50 years, was accompanied by her son Corey and daughter Pat. As she entered the tent, Dorothy Skala was surrounded by a crowd of alumni, including many players in the Carlos López Memorial Soccer Tournament.

“She made me get down on my knees to say hello,” teased President Richard A. Moran at a special tribute to Skala. “There are probably several fathers of Menlo College, including Judge Russell and Carlos López , but there’s only one mother of Menlo College, and that is Dorothy Skala.”

She started out as file clerk in 1957, quickly became Judge Russell’s secretary, advanced to the position of assistant, and began “sorting out the alumni correspondence” for Russell in the 1970s. After decades of work with the alumni, she was named an honorary alumnus in 1996, and she was appointed Director of Alumni Relations Emerita in 2008.

Dorothy Skala’s wry sense of humor and her ability to remember the details of stories about the College and alumni have charmed her fans throughout the years. Her birthday tribute at OAKtoberFest was a delight for her colleagues and the many visitors who made the OAKtoberFest pilgrimage from great distances especially to see her. If we had to guess from the smiles and laughter, Dorothy had a good time too.

L to R, The Skala Family: Pat, Dorothy, and Corey, Dorothy with John Rohrer and Alan Reid, the Bowmans with Dorothy | Below L to R, Enrique Ybarra, Maya and Philip Sewald with Dorothy, President Moran, Philip Sewald, Karl Buder and Dorothy MENLO COLLEGE

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Above, OAKtoberFest performers, including left clockwise, Anisah Smith ‘18, Katrina Ford ‘16, Natalie Washington ‘18, Tatianna Garland ‘18, and Ibrahima Mobley ‘19. Middle, Tyler Diamond ‘17, Angela Tsung ‘19, Rachel Tabaracci ‘17. Bottom, Nicholas De Josia, adjunct professor and OAKtoberFest master of ceremonies in the Quad, welcomed the community. PHOTOS: ANDREY POLIAKOV, SOCCER PHOTO BY OAKSSPORTS.COM

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Above, Menlo alumni at the OAKtoberFest annual Carlos L贸pez Memorial soccer tournament. Below, senior women soccer players including Assistant Coach Barbara Shamoon, Coach Keith Lambert, Jordin Altmann, Taylor Morrow, Raquel DeJesus, Yasmeen Fuentes, Jocelyn Aguilar, Brittany Wisecarver, Maddie Napier, Assistant Coach Stephanie Bloom, and Assistant Coach Natalie Ingram. PHOTO BY OAKSSPORTS.COM MENLO COLLEGE

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L to R, Professor Deborah McCabe, Max Wyzard, his brother Braun, Alexa Ledesma, Lori Wyzard and President Richard A. Moran at the campus store ribbon cutting ceremony during OAKtoberFest.

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Students Design a New Campus Store for Menlo College

he renovation for the Menlo College Campus Store started when Professor Deborah McCabe asked if she could use the store as a subject for a marketing class project during the summer of 2014,” recalled Campus Store manager Charlene Krakowsky.

Talbott provided CAD drawings based on the student designs, and the students made revisions that included opening up the space and adding new front windows. After plans were complete, Talbott and his crew turned the blueprint into a whole new shopping experience.

McCabe assigned projects to two marketing classes to improve and advertise the store. The students ran extensive surveys and led several focus groups using faculty, staff, and students from Menlo College as well as Menlo School to make their assessments. First on their bullet list of recommendations was to remodel the store!

“Alexa and I met regularly with Professor McCabe to exchange ideas about the design of the store,” said Wyzard. “We spent a lot of time comparing college stores across the country. We wanted a look that was fitting for our generation.

As a fashionista, Alexa had the reins on the interior, and I focused on the exterior.

We both adhered to a ‘less is better’ philosophy, because you can’t put out everything you have on the shelves to effectively market it,” said Wyzard. “I’m proud of our smooth process. It’s a rare opportunity when you get to design a building.”

“The marketing research projects were completed in Fall 2014, and the campus store remodeling project developed the following spring. By summer we were under construction. The entire experience provided valuable benefits to the College,” said Professor McCabe.

Menlo College students Alexa Ledesma ‘15 and Max Wyzard ‘15 designed the store from the inside out. They worked with Menlo College Director of Facilities and Operations Bob Talbott to create an inviting shopping experience.

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“I enjoyed working with our team,” said Ledesma. “We created something special and beautiful.”

McCabe said, “I couldn't be more proud of my consumer behavior and marketing research class members, especially Alexa and Max. They did a fantastic job!”

To emphasize the branding of athletics, Menlo College Athletics Director Keith Spataro assigned Director of Marketing and Promotions Katie Caliendo to help with marketing the new store.

"I am excited to be working with the Campus Store as we continue to strengthen the Menlo College brand by utilizing merchandise and apparel sold in the store and online,” said Caliendo.

“Increasing the marketing efforts and continuing to obtain market research will help us fill the need for Menlo College branded items and grow the visibility of Menlo both on a local and national level."

The ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Menlo College Campus Store was part of the recent OAKtoberFest activities on campus.

The store is now fully operational, and Krakowsky is busy with new display options made possible by the renovation, including a new coffee bar feature within the store. As she ponders these decisions, a question has occurred to her –“Is there another marketing class project coming up soon?”

Faculty Notes Management Professor Leslie Sekerka, Marketing Associate Professor Fabian Eggers, and Political Science Professor Melissa Michelson

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Professors Discuss Latest Research with OAKtoberFest Community

mong the events that took place as part of the 2015 Menlo College OAKtoberFest weekend, three faculty members shared their research with Menlo alumni and parents of current students. Political Science Professor Melissa Michelson, Management Professor Leslie Sekerka, and Marketing Professor Fabian Eggers were the featured speakers, moderated by Provost Terri Givens.

Political Science – Professor Melissa Michelson Professor Melissa Michelson shared her research on voter turnout. Michelson’s books include Mobilizing Inclusion (2012), which describes results from 268 randomized experiments aimed at increasing turnout in low-propensity communities throughout California, and Living the Dream (2014), on immigration policies and undocumented Latino youth. She has a new book due to be published in 2016 on marriage equality. Michelson is currently working with San Mateo County to evaluate their pilot all-mail ballot election. Part of her involvement will include collecting data via exit polls and a post-election telephone survey, both using student research assistants. “I’m so pleased that Menlo College students will have a chance to do academic research,” she said. Michelson also noted her ongoing work to increase participation in Huron, California “the opposite of Atherton,” she explained, “where there is seasonable 40% unemployment.”

Marketing – Associate Professor Fabian Eggers Associate Professor of Marketing Fabian Eggers began his talk with a reference to

the movie Back to the Future, in which the memorable characters Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to the future – from 1985 to 2015. Their exact arrival date was October 21, 2015. How did the filmmakers in 1989 (the year the movie was released) imagine the year 2015?

The imaginary hoverboards and flat screen televisions with video call functionality in the movie became realities by 2015, whereas self-tying Nikes and men wearing two ties are not so popular – yet.

Regarding innovation, Professor Eggers has been studying the question “What makes firms radically innovative?” with four colleagues from Indiana University, University of Liechtenstein, and Asia University, Taiwan.

Eggers and his team studied a sample of 1,897 firms to see if they could identify strategic orientations that enable companies to be innovative. Their results included a fascinating collection of paths of innovation that depended on the collaborative, daredevil, aggressive, or cautious behavior of the innovators. Eggers used graphs of the team’s findings to illustrate how different behavior patterns lead to radical innovation.

Management – Professor Leslie Sekerka “Although you might think ethics and business are an oxymoron, when I mention to people I teach business ethics, everyone says, ‘we really need that,’” said Management Professor Leslie Sekerka.

She recently edited Ethics Training in Action: An Examination of Issues, Techniques and Development, Ethics in Practice Series, Information Age Publishing.

Sekerka quizzed the audience, asking, “How many of you think you’re above average ethically?” Almost everyone raised their hands. Sekerka smiled and nodded. “Yes, everyone assumes they’re above average! Scholars have dubbed this phenomenon the ‘Lake Wobegon Effect.’ We tend to over-estimate our abilities and achievements.”

Lake Wobegon is a fictional town that is in the Garrison Keillor’s PBS radio series A Prairie Home Companion. The characterization of the story is that the town is where “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” It has been used to describe a real and pervasive human tendency to overestimate one’s achievements and capabilities in relation to others.

Rather than assuming you’re ethical, moral agency means you actually engage in right action throughout your day. “It’s about choosing to value and apply ethics in your regular everyday tasks. This is something that we all can work on improving, at any age,” she said.

Sekerka has recently published a children’s book to start ethical awareness and learning at a much earlier age. Being a Better Bear – What it Means to be Ethical is the first of the series. Sekerka has begun a book tour of community outreach, is creating a children’s reading program, and is including Menlo students in these activities. She already has plans for her next bear story, which will focus on dealing with ethics and peer pressure.

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Members of the Business Ethics in Action Club, “TJ” Huseyin Yildirim and Zach Bothelio share key points about “Being a Better Bear” with children at the local Ronald McDonald House.

Reading Program “Being a Better Bear” Introduces Young Learners to Ethics

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r. Leslie Sekerka, Professor of Management, has two papers recently accepted for publication, “Positive Organizational Ethics: Adult Moral Development in the Workplace” and “Professional Moral Courage: Fostering Principled Performance at Work,” to appear in management practitioner outlets. Her article with Dr. Marianne Marar Yacobian, “A Guide to Doing Business in Iran,” appeared in Fortune Magazine. Dr. Sekerka was also quoted in a recent Mercury News article about Uber, discussing the ethics of its aggressive approach.

Her research on durable moral courage and preventing demoralization has been a highly sought-after topic this term, with papers accepted and presented at the Society of Business Ethics (Vancouver, BC), Academy of Management (Vancouver, BC), and European Academy of Management (Warsaw, Poland). Her paper on social self-conscious emotions in moral decision-making was also presented at the Association for Psychological Science (New York, NY). Dr. Sekerka’s book, Ethics is a Daily Deal: Choosing to Build Moral Strength as a Practice, is also now available from Springer Publishing. The professor’s

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service among the broad community of scholars was honored this year, with the 2015 Outstanding Reviewer Award from Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence, recognizing significant contributions to the field.

Perhaps the most joyful work that Dr. Sekerka has been engaged in this year is to bridge her scholarship with activities that engage students in community service. With her “Being a Better Bear” reading program, members of Menlo’s Business Ethics in Action Club visit local area children’s groups, encouraging young people to realize what it means to be ethical.

$12,800 grant to the Ethics in Action Research & Education Center to commence this initiative. The Ethics in Action Speaker Program brings a variety of Silicon Valley professionals to the campus including leaders from Adobe, Google, Driscoll’s Berries, StoneTurn, Visa, and The Gap, to name a few. Menlo students continue to hear that more and more leaders ardently believe ethics in business is a duty, one that’s nonnegotiable.

Being a Better Bear, the book she recently published with Menlo Imprint, is used to support this effort. The literary work continues to gain acclaim and attract positive press for the College. After her guest appearance on the television program Good Day Sacramento, a variety of charter schools throughout California have expressed interest in learning about how to incorporate ethics education within their preschool venues.

The James Hervey Johnson Charitable Educational Trust generously awarded a

Dr. Leslie Sekerka with her book, Being a Better Bear.

Pauline Fatien, Associate Professor, Management

PROVOST TERRI GIVENS

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ith my first semester completed, I feel fortunate that Menlo College has welcomed me into this community as the new Provost. What is a Provost? I often get that question when I introduce myself. Another name for Provost is Chief Academic Officer.

As part of the President’s cabinet, I work with our faculty and staff to run our academic programs. Previously, I was the Vice Provost for undergraduate curriculum and international affairs at the University of Texas. My work with changing curriculum across a large university was a great experience, but I appreciate the focus on undergraduates at Menlo, and the small size that gives our students the type of attention that is difficult to find at a large institution.

It has been a great pleasure for me to join Menlo College where the dedicated faculty often go above and beyond to provide superior educational experiences. Our students are motivated and engaged, taking advantage of opportunities such as our internship program and business plan competitions that make Menlo College a unique place.

The future is bright at Menlo College!

Last summer, Dr. Pauline Fatien presented her research findings on ethics in coaching to coaching professional associations in France. She was interviewed for the French journal TANK. In France, she also participated in a training program for coaching.

This fall, she has just started a research project with a global auto company to study the implementation of coaching in 10 different countries! Her previous case study, at Arcélor Mittal, was awarded with the 2014 Best Case Study in Human Resource Management (AGRH). Her 2015 publications include "Ethical Codes and Executive Coaches: One Size Does Not Fit All,” The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, published with Jean Nizet, and "Wearing multiple hats? Challenges for managers-as-coaches and their organizations,” Leadership International Journal, with Ken Otter.

Associate Professor Pauline Fatien

Craig Medlen, Professsor, Economics Professor Craig Medlen’s article, “Free Cash, Corporate Taxes and the Federal Deficit” has just been published in the Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics. He shows that if corporations had paid—through time—the corporate tax rate that they used to pay in the mid-1950s the national debt would have been reduced to less than 30% of what it is currently. Following Michal Kalecki’s notion that Federal Deficits add to free cash—cash in excess of new investment— he explains that “higher corporate tax rates give a double-whammy to government stimulants.

First, deficits increase spending power. Second, higher corporate taxes suck away ‘free cash’ for even more stimulants.” He also gave a talk in Hawaii last summer on “The Great Escape: the Multinational Trade Deficit in Historical Perspective” arguing that some large part of the U.S. trade deficit has to do with the fact that the U.S. multinational presence abroad tends to substitute for U.S. exports. Medlen says, “This perspective contributes to an understanding of why exchange rate changes are relatively ineffective in correcting trade imbalances.”

Economics Professor Craig Medlen

Harold Justman, Adjunct Professsor, Real Estate The Real Estate Program is building upon the success of the “flipped” classroom learning model that was implemented in the Real Estate Law class in the Spring 2015 semester. (see the Spring 2015 Menlo Advantage Magazine, page 45.) Andrew Hart, the President of the Menlo College Real Estate Investment Team, inspired the class to pledge to graduate with a California real estate license. In August, Hart obtained his license. Professor Justman, who had pledged to the class that he would also seek a license, obtained his broker’s license in June. The Fall 2015 semester class, Introduction to Real Estate, has also pledged Real Estate Professor to work towards a license. Professor Justman is very proud of Harold Justman the commitment shown by his real estate students. His article “Shared Responsibility Mortgages” coauthored with Henry Chuang and Julia Wei, was recently published in the California Real Property Journal.

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WE NEED TO TALK Sex, Consent, and NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names at Menlo College Last fall, the common book was NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names, a complex and occasionally graphic novel that chronicles a young woman’s journey (Darling) as she navigates the challenges of poverty, immigration and, perhaps most frighteningly of all, girlhood. By looking at the way Darling confronts new situations, students were given the opportunity to reflect on their own responses to a new environment.

Dr. Jodie Austin

by Jodie Austin, Asistant Professor, English Dr. Jodie Austin teaches composition and literature as well as the Transition to College course at Menlo College. With a PhD from Brandeis University, her research interests include early modern literature, Renaissance drama, and film.

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n September 24, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill unlike any other— SB967, which quickly became known as the “Yes Means Yes” law on campuses statewide. Among other provisions, the bill established a definition for “affirmative consent” between sexual partners as a “conscious, and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity.” The law mandated outreach programming for “every incoming student’s orientation” to teach the new law. At Menlo College, the Transition to College course was quickly adapted to include “Yes Means Yes” along with other discussions of campus life. Professors used a common book to further the conversations about students’ new academic responsibilities, changes in social life, and sex.

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Readers see Darling’s Zimbabwe through the eyes of a young girl and her America through the eyes of a young woman.

Thus, the title of the book lends itself to an easy interpretation: as Darling moves from Zimbabwe to America, her identity likewise becomes caught in the no-man’s land between nation and culture. She, like those who made the journey before her, is in dire need of a “new name.” However, astute readers will also catch the whiff of a more subversive warning: that the failure to produce “new names” for ineffable and sometimes traumatic experiences inflicted upon the marginalized and the shunned will often result in their continued invisibility. Darling’s inability to name her tough new experiences, past and present, may be even more important than finding a new name for herself.

Early on, Darling confronts the tragedy of unnamed trauma. Her father dies of a disease the villagers will call only “the Sickness” (Bulawayo 104). In the most heartbreaking example in the novel, Darling’s childhood friend Chipo is forced to channel the description of her incestuous rape through analogy. Upon witnessing the assault of an anonymous woman, Chipo finds her voice but does not have the words to name her own experiences as “assault” or even “rape.” Instead, she tries to make do with the crude, limited materials of her childish language by comparing the woman’s experience to

her own: “He did that, my grandfather” (Bulawayo 42).

These scenes from the novel highlight the reality of oppressive violence as an institutionalized un-naming, depicting realistic instances in which victims lack the vocabulary to describe their traumas.

In classroom discussions, such fictional scenes helped Menlo College students study the difficulty of sorting out new sexual experiences and finding the words to stay safe and happy with their encounters.

In many ways, this struggle can be better understood through the lens of Miranda Fricker, a social philosopher whose work deals with real-life instances in which the lack of available terminology related to traumatic experiences renders victims’ explanations unintelligible to others.

Fricker points to victims of sexual harassment who have been forced to describe their mistreatment as unwanted flirting1 As every instructor knows, vocabulary matters— not simply in that it makes one more erudite, but because our language provides a medium for making sense of the world around us, both as a means of understanding and as a literal production of meaning.

Sadly, in the former we often fail. In the second half of We Need New Names, we see an older, nightclub-attending Darling who still struggles to put a name to experiences as disturbing as they are socially acceptable. While watching a woman subjected to a demeaning dance on the club floor, Darling finds herself unable to find the right response: “I thought it strange and wrong, but after a while I found myself clapping because that’s what everyone was doing” (Bulawayo 281). The reader witnesses Darling mentally reaching for an appropriate reaction, only to find it voided by incomprehensi-

PHOTO: ANDREY POLIAKOV

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Professor Marianne Marar Yacobian & Students Raise Funds for Syrian Refugees

r. Marianne Marar Yacobian's Diversity in the Workplace class, along with members of the Black Student Union and students campus-wide, raised funds and awareness for the Syrian Refugee crisis.

Donations were collected for the International Rescue Committee, an organization committed to restoring the dignity of refugees fleeing warfare. Nearly five years after the outbreak of war, the International Rescue Committee has helped more than 3 million Syrian refugees and internally displaced people to recover and rebuild

their lives. They provide medical and other critical aid, ensure refugees have access to legal counseling, and help women and girls who are victims of violence.

Dr. Yacobian and her students mobilized in honor of Alan Kurdi, his brother Galip Kurdi, and the countless children who’ve suffered because too many good people stayed silent. Alan Kurdi was the little three-year-old boy whose image made global headlines after he drowned and washed ashore on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea, as part of the Syrian refugee crisis.

Dr. Yacobian and her Menlo students would like to thank the donors who helped raise thousands of dollars for the cause.

It is not too late to donate.

TO DONATE:

Write a tax deductible check to: International Rescue Committee and please write DIY099 on the memo line. SEND TO: Dr. Marianne Marar Yacobian 1000 El Camino Real Atherton, CA 94027

WE NEED TO TALK Continued from page 14 bility. Darling could represent any number of young adults facing down a tough situation, often in the company of friends who find themselves equally in crisis. Adding to this problem, students across the country now face the pressure of responding in difficult social situations as “bystanders”— a label that makes individuals sound like helpless witnesses to a traffic accident rather than empowered agents.

Stepping into the classroom in the first week, both Menlo College freshmen and their instructors sensed an onerous task ahead. The students were being asked to make the intellectual quantum leap into

the college environment, which demanded the ability to speak about language, literature, and life in the dorms with equal amounts of precision, poise, and savvy.

Likewise, instructors teaching the Transition to College course faced the fraught task of contextualizing the novel’s content, pairing it specifically with issues faced by colleges today, including sex, consent, and the sometimes dangerously nebulous quality of the two. Both camps confronted the task of having to “codeswitch” rapidly between discourse related to the body, and body-talk; adulthood, and “adult

things,” with as much awkwardness as can be expected.

And yet, one cannot help but see this discomfort as a sign of progress, as everyone in the classroom continues to grapple with the difficulty of new guidelines, new cultures, and new names. As Fricker would argue, all of the issues covered in SB 967 deserve their day in the sun–that is, to be spoken aloud, and pronounced in public.

1 Miranda Fricker, “Powerlessness and Social Interpretation,” Episteme: A Journal of Social Epistemology 3.1-­‐2 (2006): 98.

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Students Try a Hackathon with IBM Bluemix and IBM Watson

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tart small, think big,” were the motivational words of Angie Li Krackeler, North America Cloud Technical Evangelist at IBM in a welcoming speech at “Breakers @ Menlo College.” The hackathon event for students was cosponsored by IBM Bluemix, IBM Watson and Menlo College.

IBM Bluemix deals with the cloud development platform for building, running, and managing apps and services. IBM Watson is an artificially intelligent computer system, i.e., it understands natural language and is not programmed. IBM Watson is capable of answering questions that are more human-like than a computer. Watson was specifically developed to answer questions that won Watson $1 million on the quiz show Jeopardy! in 2011.

A hackathon is an event in which computer programmers and graphic designers, interface designers and project managers collaborate intensively on software projects. Hackathons typically last between a day and a week. The event, created by Professor Jeannice Fairrer Samani, an adjunct faculty member at Menlo College, lasted until nearly midnight and offered students a chance to try invention and pitching ideas.

Top left, Devin Nunez and other students had fun building projects with marshmallows and spaghetti. Right, Professor Jeannice Fairrer Samani’s event, Breakers @ Menlo.

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Professor Krackeler’s outline for creating a new app or program is: • Create your story first • Target your audience and market • Use teamwork to collaborate and communicate together • Define the opportunity in your new product • Explain what is unique about your product • Ask yourself what benefits you get from it • Produce a demo As explained by Professor Krackeler, once you follow the preceding steps, you should write a pitch that is no more than a minute long. Tell a story in the pitch. Don’t just try to sell your product in the pitch. Talk about a subject who used it and how it made a difference.

At the end of the day, the success of your product depends on the impact of the innovation and the value of your product.

Rick Edge: Menlo College Postmaster and San Juan Bautista Mayor

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hen Menlo College Postmaster Rick Edge isn’t delivering mail to the Menlo community, he is serving as Mayor of San Juan Bautista, a city with a population of 1,900 in San Benito County, California. Edge’s service to San Juan Bautista stretches back almost 20 years, and includes membership on the Planning Commission, as well as membership on the City Council.

Rick Edge, Postmaster of Menlo College and Mayor of San Juan Bautista

San Juan Bautista is home to the largest of the California missions and the most visited by California’s fourth graders studying California history. Edge is also active on a committee to preserve the 200-year-old Mission, which was used as a setting for Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo nearly 60 years ago. The preservation of the Mission San Juan Bautista is projected to cost $14 million.

Currently, San Juan Bautista is facing a drought with the rest of California, and has plans to build a fourth well. The town also was assisted by local American Indians: the LA Times recently reported “In a weekly rain dance at Mission San Juan Bautista, Native Americans encouraged everyone to join in a ceremony to break open the heavens and bring forth water.”

Edge said he is proud of his ability to “get council meetings to move along faster.”

His advice for facilitating meetings is “Be quick and don’t get lost in repetition.

Move from point to point.”

Water and fire are two of many issues that will come to Edge’s attention in his term as mayor. Whatever the issue is at hand, Edge will use the same stoic patience and experience he deploys at Menlo College to keep things moving at San Juan Bautista.

Storytellers from the Menlo College community at the inaugural Open Mic Storytellling event.

Marianne Neuwirth Organizes Open Mic Storytelling Event

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he inaugural Open Mic Storytelling event, organized by Dr. Marianne Neuwirth, the new Director of Oral Communication Programs, attracted 18 people including students, faculty and staff. Among the speakers were a woman wrestler, a girl who delivered her baby sister at home, a camp counselor stuck on a stalled bus with 32 youngsters saying,

“orange you glad I didn’t say banana?” one too many times, a Caucasian mom with a beautiful daughter from China, and many young poets and prophets who bravely shared about loss and grief.

a Kepler’s gift card donated by a faculty member—and the book or books that they purchase with it.

Neuwirth hopes to make this a semiannual event. Anyone is welcome, and any story is welcome.

There were so many wonderful stories that just one winner couldn’t be picked.

The students are sharing the prize— MENLO COLLEGE

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MENLO COLLEGE’S INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS

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enlo College may be small but it has a global reach. Students find their way to the college from as far away as the United Arab Emirates, Eritrea, the Philippines and Kazakhstan. Menlo College also has a link with faculty at Universidad Adolfo Ibanez in Chile, a connection established by beloved Menlo College President Carlos López, who was raised in Chile.

Meanwhile, Menlo College Board of Trustee John Henry Felix ’49 helped develop a multi-college exchange program, the “Summer Research Program,” which was originally envisioned by Ralph Waller.

John Henry Felix refined and initiated this program through the endorsement of Harris Manchester’s Board of Regents and personally sponsored four universities and Menlo College.

Two of the strongest international ties to other universities were established in the 1990s. In 1997, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation funded a project to allow scholars from Peking University to study at colleges in the United States and to create a residence at Menlo College for some of them to pursue advanced degrees in Western business management here. Through this program, the David Packard International Faculty Pavilion was built at Peking University in Beijing to house international visiting faculty. In 1998, 15 Chinese exchange students from Peking University came to Menlo, the first after the Cultural Revolution. Menlo College continues to have a student exchange program with Guangdong University of Business in Guangzhou.

Dr. Felix was involved in the establishment of the relationship between Menlo College and Harris Manchester, working with Menlo Trustee Rosemary Hewlett. Jack Brigham, former Chair of Menlo’s Board of Trustees and a regent of Harris Manchester, was also instrumental in the development of the program and a strong advocate for it. The program came to fruition in 1994 when the first two Menlo faculty members—Dr. Marilyn Thomas and Dr. Eugene Bales—headed to London to teach as guest lecturers and conduct original research. Dr. Felix has generously supported this program from its inception.

Menlo’s connection with Harris Manchester College, the latest addition to colleges that make up Oxford University in the heart of Oxford, began in 1993.

Menlo College Trustee Rosemary Hewlett and her husband William provided Menlo College with a $1 million grant for a Visiting Scholars program, allowing professors from around the world to study and lecture at Menlo for a semester or a year.

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“Menlo has one of the greatest faculty training programs in the country,” says Dr. Eugene Bales, who spent two semesters at Oxford and a semester at Guangdong.

This page is an excerpt from the book Through the Gates: Eighty-Five Years of Menlo College and its Times by Pamela Gullard, Menlo College Lecturer in Literature. Above: David Lamar Williams-Pinkney ‘02 attended Harris Manchester College in 2000.

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Front left to right, Menlo College student Braxton Liddell with international students Berlin Xing and Fei Qu.

PHOTO: ANDREY POLIAKOV

Immigration Experts Drawn to Menlo College, a Multicultural Campus

By Pamela Gullard

Immigration Experts at Menlo College

Pamela Gullard has written three books with Nancy Lund showing how the nineteenth century California economy in three cities led to Silicon Valley. Her short fiction, published by Henry Holt, has been reissued by Macmillan in Kindle format. She is a lecturer at Menlo College teaching literature. She wrote Through the Gates: Menlo College and its Times.

This keen awareness of immigration problems and benefits is fostered at Menlo, with two faculty members in particular bringing specialized expertise to the issue. Political Science Professor Melissa Michelson has published extensively on her research regarding Latino immigration and politics in the United States, including coauthoring, with Maria Chavez and Jessica Lavariega Monforti, Living the Dream: New Immigration Policies and the Lives of Undocumented Latino Youth. Provost Terri Givens, who joined Menlo in 2015, has just published her intensive look into the politics of antidiscrimination policy toward immigrants in Europe, Legislating Equality, written with Rhonda Evans Case.

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n the early 1970s, Menlo College history professor Joe Bertrand told a friend, “If you speak Arabic, French, and Spanish, you’ll do well at our college.” He was referring to Menlo’s long tradition of welcoming international students. By the end of the 1980s, 101 students from other countries, about 10% of the student body, attended Menlo School and College.

The number has now climbed to 14%, with students from 34 countries outside the U.S. bringing their talents and fresh perspective to the college classroom.

“If Menlo College did not have its international students, it would be just another small college,” says student Braxton Liddell, a resident assistant and one of the leaders of the Menlo College Black Student Union (BSU). “At Menlo, we learn the benefits of knowing people from other cultures.” He says that the U.S. is “a land of immigrants” and that Menlo’s multicultural population mirrors that of the country. He is exactly right, as indicated in a September 28, 2015 New York Times article. Writes journalist Julia Preston, “The foreign-born share [in the U.S.] is now 14 percent, approaching the high point of 15 percent during the great European immigration in the early 20th century.”1 This past fall, Liddell and other members of the BSU raised money to help refugees hoping for asylum in Europe and the United States. He says, “We are advocating for the U.S. to raise the quotas of immigrants our country will accept.” He explains that the international presence at Menlo College “is huge, and we want that attitude of accepting immigrants to spread to everyone else.”

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As political leaders and citizens engage in fierce debates about immigration laws in the United States and Europe, Dr. Michelson and Dr. Givens provide calm perspective on how immigrants are and should be treated once they arrive in host countries. Read their latest thoughts on the subject beginning on page 23 of this issue.

Other faculty members at Menlo College promote multicultural views in their classes. The curriculum includes classes on diversity in the workplace, global literature, and on international marketing management, finance, and law and organizations.

Many faculty members at Menlo instinctively teach from a multicultural perspective to their diverse audience of students.

Upon seeing the reading list for one literature course, a friend of the instructor remarked, “You must be teaching diversity in fiction.” Surprised, the instructor explained, “Actually, not— I just picked the best work for this course.”

Menlo College in Silicon Valley, a Multicultural Hub While Menlo College has a large international presence, it is located in an area—Silicon Valley—with even greater cultural diversity. Statistics on the international creative talent in the Valley are startling. Vivek Wadhwa, an expert on U.S. entrepreneurial activity, concluded from his research in 2006 that

BUSINESS & IMMIGR ATION CONVERGE

Silicon Valley Business Leaders Tackle Immigration Law “We have a strange immigration policy for a nation of immigrants,” wrote Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, in an April 10, 2013 op-ed article in the Washington Post. “And it’s a policy unfit for today’s world.”6

Noe Duran ‘16

PHOTO: JIO CASTRO

“over 50 percent of Silicon Valley engineering and technology startups were founded by immigrants.”2 Two years later, a large, peer-reviewed study by the U.S. Small Business Administration showed that throughout California, over 30% of all businesses were immigrant-owned.3 And the trend continues. The 2014 review of demographic and business changes in the Valley published in the authoritative Silicon Valley Index explains, “The region has benefited significantly from the entrepreneurial spirit of people drawn to Silicon Valley from around the country and the world.”4 Foreign immigration to Silicon Valley jumped an incredible 52% higher than the previous year, while jobs grew by 3.4% “particularly in the areas of computer hardware design, information services, and the Internet industry.”5 Creative teams in start-ups, established high tech firms, and accounting corporations come together in Silicon Valley from all over the world. They have joined with native-born citizens to drive much of the innovation that fuels the computer revolution.

Business Students Participate in the Global Economy Every student at Menlo College completes an internship before graduation and, with the College at the edge of Silicon Valley, many of them get a close-up view of this multiculturalism at work in the Valley.

The students relish the opportunity to learn from other cultures. Says Drew Nyberg, “My internship was at Kctv5, which is incredibly diverse, and I gained a whole different perspective on group dynamics. Having the views of many different people strengthens the whole team.”

Senior Noe Duran concurs. “You get better ideas with people who come from different places. My internship opened my mind to the way some cultures greet you more. They want to know your way of doing things.”

If you want to be in the midst of the global economy, Menlo College is the place to start. James Dinwiddie, Adjunct Professor, Intensive English Program, explains, “Students in college now will be living in an international world and it’s critical that they learn to interact with people from other countries. At Menlo College that’s an invaluable part of their education.”

Zuckerberg and many other Silicon Valley leaders have lobbied Congress, donated millions to new charitable organizations focusing on immigration issues, and even held a hackathon to try to fix what Ron Conway, an angel investor, calls “our broken immigration system, which currently stifles . . . growth.”7 At first, many of the executives concentrated on more welcoming policies for high tech professionals. Industry leaders wished to ease the way for U.S. companies to sponsor foreign math and science graduates for permanent residency, create a visa program for entrepreneurs, and expand to 110,000, from 65,000, the number of temporary workers allowed into the country every year on H-1B visas.

Such visas are used by high tech companies to attract highly educated workers for skilled positions.

In the Washington Post, Zuckerberg explained the need for more H-1B visas: “The economy of the last century was primarily based on natural resources, industrial machines and manual labor.” However, “Today’s economy is . . . based primarily on knowledge and ideas . . . In a knowledge economy, the most important resources are the talented people we educate and attract to our country. A knowledge economy can scale further, create better jobs and provide a higher quality of living for everyone in our nation.”8 Zuckerberg joined leaders “who reflect the breadth and depth of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial culture” to create FWD.us, an organization lobbying for immigration reform.

Active members include most of Silicon Valley’s movers and shakers, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Marissa Mayer, President and CEO of Yahoo! Many of the same players banded together to form TechNet, a bipartisan group of over 50 executives to discuss and actively pursue new immigration policies.

Despite all the money and time that Silicon Valley has poured into immigration reform, the politics have remained complicated and frustrating. FWD.us attempted to branch out to other political arenas, causing dissension within its ranks. Reform bills have died in Congress. Abuses of H-1B visas by out-sourcing companies have been uncovered and critics from both political parties have voiced concerns that those holding H-1B visas take jobs from Americans.

But the discussion in Silicon Valley continues to move forward, recently widening to a new emphasis on allow-

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“The region has benefited significantly from the entrepreneurial spirit of people drawn to Silicon Valley from around the country and the world.”

Silicon Valley Index, 2015

ing less skilled workers to contribute more easily to the U.S. economy. Ron Conway explains: “Those of us who work in the technology sector have been calling for smart immigration reform for years. In the past we’ve tried a piecemeal approach, focusing solely on visas for advanced degree foreign-born students in STEM fields because they are the heart and soul of our industry.

Today, I take a different view, I believe our focus was too narrow. Our country needs a comprehensive plan . . . to fix our current legal immigration system—a system that pulls apart families, forces small businesses to close their doors due to a lack of access to a workforce, keeps 11 million undocumented immigrants in the shadows and leaves our borders vulnerable.”9 Zuckerberg and others have also expressed this expanded view that includes both skilled and less skilled workers. On June 17, 2015, he and his wife Priscilla Chan announced a donation of $5 million toward scholarships for hundreds of undocumented students in the Bay Area. This donation tops an earlier contribution from the couple of $2.5 million toward such scholarships in 2014. Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page, “We ought to welcome smart and hardworking young people from every nation, and to help everyone in our society achieve their full potential.”

_____________________________________ Notes 1 Preston, Julia. “Share of Immigrants in U.S. Nears Highs of Early 20th Century.” New York Times. 28 September 2015.

2 Vivek, Wadhwa. “Immigrants are More Likely to be Entrepreneurs.”

BusinessWeek Online. 26 November 2008, 1. http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/nov2008/sb20081125 _711355.htm 3 Ibid., 2.

4 Silicon Valley Index 2014, a publication of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies. 2014, 10. www.siliconvalleyindex.org 5 Ibid., 14.

6 Zuckerberg, Mark. “Immigrants are the Key to a Knowledge Economy.”

Washington Post, 10 April 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mark-zuckerberg-immigrantsare-the-key-to-a-knowledge-economy/2013/04/10/aba05554-a20b-11e282bc-511538ae90a4_story.html?hpid=z2 7 Conway, Ron. “Broken Immigration Stifles Our Tech Industry.”

Mashable. 22 May 2013. http://mashable.com/2013/05/22/ron-conway-march-for-innovation

Immigration issues have a profound effect on all students and especially on Menlo College business students as they learn about the changing global economy, become interns in a Valley flooded with immigrants, and ultimately, become business leaders who will face the joys and challenges of immigration issues here and abroad.

International Students on Menlo College As an international student, there were lots of obstacles for me, but at Menlo, it was easier to figure it out. Everybody here helped me a lot. Teachers gave me lots of suggestions. Classmates gave me help on study and residential life. —Fei Qu I feel I’m surprised because Menlo is so much better than I expected. Nobody treats me as a foreigner here, no priority, nothing unequal either. This makes me get involved in American life really quick, and I enjoy it. —Berlin Xing I like the strong connection between professors and students.

That connection is very important and seems to be very hard to find elsewhere. The easiness and comfortability of the conversation that takes place inside and outside the classroom really helps as an international student in terms of learning and socializing. —Bac Tran As a freshman, student athlete, and an international student, I had a lot of questions in my mind before I came here to Menlo.

Questions like whether I’m going to fit in and if I’ll like it here were all over my mind. However, after the first couple of days here, all of my questions and concerns disappeared. The professors, staff, and of course the students and my teammates have been extremely kind and welcoming since day 1. They’ve made my staying here both easy and wonderful. —Anders Nymo All classes at Menlo College are relatively small scale so it’s a good environment and good for asking questions and communicating.

At Menlo, I often see people five times a day and so we can make a network of friends easily. I have gone to an international school in Osaka so I knew English, but I didn’t know American culture. My Keisuke Hara ‘15 resident assistant Devin supported me in many ways, including taking me to Target and the bank whenever I needed a ride.

—Keisuke Hara Being an international student at Menlo for me is fantastic. I have the opportunity to represent my country and culture as I never could before. Although I am the only Brazilian at Menlo, I feel at home. Everyone is helping me to make my time wonderful. I’m looking foward to being more involved with everything the school has provided for us. —Luiz Lodino Nicomedes, Jr.

8 Zuckerberg. "Immigrants are the Key." 9 Conway. "Broken Immigration."

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Luiz Lodino Nicomedes, Jr. ‘18 and Professor Jodie Austin discuss an assignment.

Comparison of Refugee Flows in the U.S. and Europe

By Terri Givens Dr. Terri Givens holds a B.A. in international relations from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a recognized expert on the global politics of immigration and European politics. In 2015, she became the Provost of Menlo College.

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he November terrorist attacks in Paris once again focused the spotlight on Islamic extremists, and concerns that they may be finding their way to Europe along with refugees coming from Syria. However, many have argued that we must continue to welcome these refugees, with President Obama saying that “The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism, they are the most vulnerable as a consequence of civil war and strife.”1 Menlo College students are among many who are focused on the plight of Syrian refugees. Large numbers of these refugees have made Europe their destination as they attempt to escape the war that has engulfed their country. As of late 2015, the border agency of the European Union (EU) estimated that 700,000 refuges had entered the EU. Many travel by sea where they face many perils and large numbers have drowned in overloaded boats. This is the largest flow of refugees since the end of World War II. As the situation shows no sign of ending, European Union countries have struggled to develop a common policy towards refugees. Countries like Germany have shown a willingness to take in large numbers of refugees, while countries like Hungary and Greece have struggled with managing the large influxes.

In the U.S., President Barack Obama has pledged to take in as many as 100,000 Syrian refugees over the next few years (10,000 in 2016), but the numbers entering are more of a trickle, compared to the flows into Europe. Most of these refugees are

PHOTO: ANDREY POLIAKOV

young and well-educated, and refugee resettlement is organized in such a way to avoid placing too heavy a burden on any particular community. Also, the U.S. has had strict measures in place since 9/11 for screening those seeking asylum from the Middle East, while there has also been more of a focus on helping those who are sheltering in camps near the conflict areas.

As noted in the Los Angeles Times, “Since the start of the Syrian civil war in March 2011, Washington has provided more than $4 billion for relief to those fleeing the conflict that has displaced 4 million people.”2 Of course geography plays a major role in where refugees go.

The U.S. is still experiencing flows from Central America, and given travel restrictions that make it difficult for those in conflict areas to access air travel, most are attempting to go to places they can reach by foot or boat. Children arrive from places like Guatemala, often traveling on their own. They face many perils as they cross through Mexico, traveling on the trains where many have been injured, or face attacks from armed gangs.

These flows have picked up again as these children and families try to escape the violence in their neighborhoods.

The situation in the Middle East is likely to remain unstable for some time to come, while the U.S. and Russia negotiate their involvement in these conflicts. Supporting humanitarian efforts will continue to be critical to the survival of those caught in the crossfire.

As I discuss these issues with Menlo College students, it is clear that they have a deep awareness of these types of world events, and I look forward to continuing to share my own research and experiences on these topics. It is important for our students to understand their place in our global community, as well as the impact these issues have in our community and here on our own campus.

________________________________________ 1 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/world/europe/obama-says-paris-attackshave-stiffened-resolve-to-crush-isis.html?_r=0 2 http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-us-refugees-asylum20150904-story.html

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Legislating Equality: The Politics of Antidiscrimination Policy in Europe

By Pamela Gullard A Review of Dr. Terri Givens' Latest Book

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eople are on the move across the globe. Some re-locate with high hopes and good prospects for highly skilled jobs. But tens of thousands are fleeing civil war or desperate poverty, paying smugglers for places in leaky boats, packed trucks. To survive, many will take almost any job at the lowest wage, which can enrage workers in the host country.

Or it can stir up existing racism in bigots looking for an excuse for violence.

In the last several decades Europe has been rocked by huge migrations. According to a recent New York Times article by Andrew Higgins, about 153,000 migrants tried to enter Europe in the first half of 2015, a 149 percent increase over the same period last year. At least 1,800 died.

Though the 28 members of the European Union spent much of the summer of 2015 in fierce debate about what to do with such huge numbers, they had already signed a measure to deal with the question of discrimination that many of the new migrants will face—however many there are.

Over twenty years ago in 1993, the Treaty of Amsterdam added important amendments to the European Union’s founding charter, especially Article 13, which gave the EU explicit authority to act with regard to discrimination on a number of grounds, including race and ethnic origin.

A new book by Menlo College Provost Terri Givens shows how this remarkable document—and the subsequent Racial Equality Directive (RED)—was developed. In Legislating Equality: The Politics of Antidiscrimination Policy in Europe (Oxford Press, 2014), Givens and co-author Rhonda Evans Case show the complex interactions between politics, informal networks, and institutions in forming the antidiscrimination platform of the European Union.

Tracing the push and pull of all these moving parts is an exciting story. It is a narrative of committed individuals pursuing the goal of antidiscrimination law in the face of obstacles.

European Politics in the Face of the Rise of the Radical Right Givens writes, “In the 1980s and early 1990s, racist acts of violence and the stunning success of radical right political parties across Europe catapulted the issues of immigration, xenophobia, fascism, and racism to the forefront.” Alarmed, members of the European Union commissioned the European Parliament to define the problem in exact terms and figure out an effective response.

A Committee of Inquiry, under the leadership of European Parliament member Glyn Ford, began to explore the question.

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Givens points out that Ford, a member of the British Labour Party, brought to the Inquiry the long British history of attempts “to devise ways of integrating existing immigrants and especially their children, the so-called ‘second generation,’ into British society.” This integration could only be accomplished through powerful antidiscrimination law.

With Ford as chair, the first Committee of Inquiry not only condemned racist speech and hate crimes, but also laid out some of the first language for creating strong antidiscrimination laws across Europe. A second Inquiry resulted in the Ford report, which deepened the discussion of antidiscrimination policy.

The Starting Line Group, an Informal Network In Givens’ capable hands, one begins to understand the vital importance of an informal network of dynamic actors able to “move forward an agenda that [European Union] member states were not necessarily supporting.”

She explains that in 1992, legal activists Isabelle Chopin, Jan Niessen, and others deeply committed to creating “institutional space” for trans-European antidiscrimination policy, sat down and developed a proposed Directive, the “so-called ‘Starting Line,’ after which the group took its name.”

The Starting Line Group did not have a formal role in the legislative process and it was associated with the relatively weak European Parliament. How, then, did it exert influence on the powerful European Commission in the European Union?

Through the persuasiveness of individual members and, as Givens eloquently emphasizes, through the fact that it wrote the first draft of the Directive.

She explains that although other groups had written piecemeal recommendations on antidiscrimination policy, the Starting Line document “was unique in that it was the first such concrete measure to be proposed.” As she points out, there is tremendous power in the first draft.

That power carried right through the final negotiations between dissenting European member arguments, even though members of the Starting Line Group were not at the table. Their original document retained its initial power and in the final antidiscrimination Directive signed by all member states, much of its language remains.

Givens’ book Legislating Equality provides many lessons about how institutions work and the interplay between tragic events and people with strong ideas. She shows that informal networks with little formal power can pull off game-changing shifts in institutions. Advocates such as Jan Niessen and Glyn Ford have quietly influenced laws across Europe so that each nation can benefit from the vitality of its immigrants.

BUSINESS & IMMIGR ATION CONVERGE

Anders Nymo

U.S. Immigration: Where We Are Now

by Melissa R. Michelson Dr. Melissa Michelson holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University.

Her research includes studies of voter turnout in ethnoracial communities and political socialization of undocumented Latino youth.

She teaches political science at Menlo College.

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mmigration in the United States is a complex, changing issue as governmental policies and attitudes shift. The overall undocumented immigrant population, however, has remained essentially unchanged for the past five years, at 11.3 million (about 3.5% of the nation’s population). Many are children who were brought to the United States by their families and have lived in the United States as undocumented Americans for most of their lives.

The vast majority of applicants hailed from Mexico, but applicants came from 24 different countries, including many Latin American countries, South Korea, Nigeria, India, and Poland.

Meanwhile, Congress continued to fail to reach consensus on immigration reform. Instead, debate focused on border security and internal enforcement. In 2013, the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill, titled the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act” (S.744), with bipartisan support, including Republican presidential candidates Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio. However, conservative Republican members of the House of Representatives killed the bill.

The circumstances of many of these youth were partially changed on June 15, 2012 when President Barack Obama announced that under his administration the Department of Homeland Security would no longer engage in the deportation of certain undocumented youth, and that qualified undocumented individuals would be eligible to apply for renewable, two-year work permits. This Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program focused on a group that has come to be called DREAMers, after the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, a measure first proposed in 2001.

The next year, House Republican leaders released a blueprint for immigration reform, but after a fierce backlash from Tea Party conservatives, House Speaker John Boehner backed away from the plan. In October 2015, Boehner announced that he would be stepping down from his post, and from Congress.

Some observers saw his departure as related to disagreements about how the party should move forward on the immigration issue. The new Speaker, Paul Ryan, has told the media that he promised conservative House members that he would not bring up immigration reform legislation until Obama was out of office, claiming the President could not be trusted on the issue.2

Although an estimated 1.2 million individuals were eligible, submission of applications was slow at first. Many undocumented immigrants were hesitant to submit the necessary paperwork before they knew who would win the 2012 presidential election (and whether the program would be cancelled if Mitt Romney won). Interest surged after Obama’s reelection, and by the end of the 2015 fiscal year the Office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had received applications from 818,161 individuals seeking deportation relief, 681,345 of which were approved.1

Two years after the initial DACA announcement, on November 20, 2014, President Obama announced a new set of executive actions on immigration, collectively called the Immigration Accountability Executive Action. These new proposals sought to extend DACA from two to three years and to apply to a larger group of people, and to add Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), to extend deportation relief to undocumented parents of citizens and legal residents. Overall, these changes were expected to grant

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deportation relief to 3.71 million undocumented immigrant parents, and to add 290,000 newly eligible individuals to the DACA program.

Previous presidents have also taken executive action on immigration. In 1986, Congress approved and President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), authorizing about 3 million undocumented immigrants to obtain legal permanent residence. In 1987, Reagan used executive action to grant deportation relief to children of individuals applying for legalization through IRCA. In July 1989, when Congress balked at President George H.W. Bush’s proposal to also defer deportation of spouses, he implemented the program through executive action. Congress approved legislation confirming both changes in 1990.3 Congress has not similarly acted to endorse President Obama’s executive actions on immigration; instead, Republicans have charged that the policies amount to presidential usurpation of Congressional lawmaking power. Opponents in 26 states, led

by Texas, filed suit against the new programs, claiming that they would negatively impact their states through costs for law enforcement, health care, education, and driver’s license processing, among other impacts.4 Rulings to date on the case, Texas v. United States, have sided with Texas. On February 16, 2015 a federal district court in Texas put the expanded DACA and DAPA programs on hold. A federal appeals court in New Orleans upheld the ruling on November 9, 2015.

President Obama’s Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to review the case; and certoriari was granted on January 19, 2016. Oral argument will be heard in April, with a decision announced by June 2016. This schedule promises to increase attention on the issue of immigration reform just in time for the presidential elections, with repercussions for both political parties regardless of how the Court decides. Until then, individuals can still apply for the original DACA program (including renewals), but applications are not being accepted for the expanded DACA or DAPA programs. Individuals eligible for either program are unlikely to be deported until the Supreme Court ruling is announced.

Meanwhile, many undocumented youth and their parents continue contributing to the U.S. economy while putting their larger dreams on hold.

________________________________________ 1 Jonathan Weisman, “Boehner Doubts Immigration Bill Will Pass in 2014,” New York Times, Feb. 7, 2014, A1.

2 http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/01/us-usa-congress-ryan-immigrationidUSKCN0SQ1V920151101#X2qpToeyRQkcLomp.97 3 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/11/21/executive-actions-onimmigration-have-long-history/ 4 Along with Texas, the 25 states seeking to block DAPA and DACA’s expansion programs are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

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Dr. Melissa Michelson shines light on undocumented youth Living the Dream: New Immigration Policies and the Lives of Undocumented Latino Youth (Paradigm Publishers, 2014)

By Maria Chavez, Jessica L. Lavariega Monforti, and Melissa R. Michelson

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n her latest book, Dr. Michelson and her co-authors look closely at the hardships and dreams of young Latinos struggling against the uncertainties of U.S. documentation.

She explains: On June 15, 2012, President Barack Obama announced that under his administration the Department of Homeland Security would no longer engage in the deportation of certain undocumented youth, effective immediately, and that qualified undocumented individuals would be eligible to apply for renewable, two-year work permits. In the months following Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) announcement, we interviewed 101 of these young people. They represent a group that has come to be called DREAMers, after the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, a measure first proposed in 2001. The DREAMers label is evocative of the familiar concept of the American Dream, that this country is a land of opportunity where anyone can achieve economic success and a better life for themselves and their children.

Various court rulings have held that undocumented children are entitled to the same public benefits as other children, including free public K-12 education. Many of these Latino youth excel in high school and dream of continuing on to become doctors, lawyers, scientists, and teachers; instead, they are left with the prospect of working under the table at manual jobs or domestic work, or possibly even leaving the United States for a country in which they were born but that they do not remember. Many of our respondents arrived in the U.S. as small children. Some no longer speak Spanish and many do not have any close relatives in their country of birth.

They were raised and socialized in the U.S., attending public schools and immersed in American culture; yet, these young people are forever marked as outsiders in the only country they have ever known. DREAMers are constantly reminded that they are not real Americans.

Throughout the book, we highlight the tremendous uncertainty DREAMers have faced and continue to face, even under DACA. We argue that only by embracing DREAMers as full members of our society can the United States stay true to our founding ideals and move toward the goal of becoming a successful multi-racial/ethnic democracy.

BUSINESS & IMMIGR ATION CONVERGE

BUSINESS & IMMIGRATION

CONVERGE Our thanks to the contributors of this special report Terri Givens Pamela Gullard Melissa Michelson

Cover photo: Tom Haflinger ‘07

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Two-Star Admiral Pete Pettigrew Asked Students, “Do You Have the Right Stuff?”

D

o You Have the Right Stuff?” was keynote speaker retired Admiral Pete Pettigrew’s topic at 2015 Menlo Connect Day. Pettigrew (known as Viper,) a former Navy aviator, Vietnam war veteran, and Top Gun instructor, served as a technical advisor on the top grossing film Top Gun. A Vietnam vet with over 375 combat missions, Admiral Pettigrew downed the top North Vietnamese fighter jet, the MIG-21, earned the Silver Star, the Joint Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with Gold Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and 33 other medals.

As a lieutenant commander, Pettigrew flew F-4J Phantoms with Navy Fighter Squadron 114 from the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk off North Vietnam.

“In the real world extraordinary things can come out of ordinary people,” he explained as he recalled the story behind The Right Stuff, which originated from a Tom Wolfe novel about aviators.

Admiral Pettigrew described one of the difficult decisions required of him in his service as a landing signal officer (LSO) on a war craft ship. As an LSO, he helped guide in the planes for landing on the ship. If he thought the plane was going to land poorly, the LSO had to “wave off” or get rid of the plane in order to save the ship.

In 1972, he was put to the test when a pilot with a wing on fire wanted to land the plane. The pilot was flying too fast and couldn’t extend the flaps on the plane to help it slow down for a safe landing on the ship. “There are times in your life when big decisions arise with little time to react to them,” he said.

The plane had to crash into the sea, and the pilot managed to parachute to safety.

“The chain of command is a two-way street. The responsibility increases from the bottom up but the people at the top also have a responsibility to the people below them. The best way to learn leadership is to emulate good leaders and disregard poor ones,” he said.

In view of the troubles with Syria and the recent Paris attacks, he noted that he had “mixed emotions about boots on the ground” in Syria. He added that there was a difference between navy pilots he worked with in the 70s and now. “Pilots fly from ten naval carriers day and night, and although they still have the right stuff, they’re a different breed, having grown up with computers and technology.”

When asked what is the greatest life lesson he could share with Menlo students, he replied, “The doors are open in your life.

Don’t be afraid to go through them. No decision is still a decision, so don’t be afraid you will fail. The more you succeed, the easier it will be to cross a threshold. Watch for the doors.”

Ron Kovas and His Entrepreneurship Class Tour Facebook

Professor Ron Kovas and his Entrepreneurship class toured Facebook 28

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Alumni Offer a Glimpse of the Future in Life After Graduation

ed Cross Business Development Manager Hanna Malak ’12, SalesX Inc. Digital Marketing Manager Tiare Fuentes ’12, NetSeer Advertising Operations Analyst Eric Tilbury ’12, Liquid Agency Program Coordinator Erin Bedell ’12, and CEO Addison Marketing, Chief Marketing Officer at Auconet, Inc. Frances Mann-Craik ’76 offered students a glimpse of what the future may hold at “Life After Graduation,” a panel of recent Menlo alumni presented at 2015 Menlo Connect Day.

What’s a positive surprise you’ve had since leaving Menlo?

If you could do one thing over at Menlo College?

Think of who is in your network before posting.

Work on my time management.

New work tips once you leave Menlo?

Spend a day shadowing a professional to see what their jobs really entail.

Keep your networking positive in case your paths meet again.

Find a balance in time spent at Menlo.

Seize the moment more.

Dress for the most important meeting of the day.

What was the most fun at Menlo?

Better to dress up than down.

Soccer, Soccer, Soccer!

Keep an extra change of clothes in the car in case of spills.

Using newfound skills like presentations.

What was the toughest part of life after Menlo?

The work routine.

No more homework.

Professional work might be easier than schoolwork.

There are some overall smarts in the work force.

Money.

How did your social media habits change once you left Menlo?

Use LinkedIn.

Don’t get bogged down in the routine, stay on point.

Use Albert’s List https://www.linkedin.com/ company/albert’s-list Fake it till you make it.

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Bowman Library Gets a Refresh

By Linda Smith Dean of Library Services

And to brighten everything, the Library got a paint job in the two main rooms of the Library, the group study room, the Library’s classroom, and the hallway. A new, more efficient, more modern circulation desk was installed.

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n Fall of 2014, a group of students from a Business Communication class made a presentation to the librarians on ways to improve Bowman Library.

Anne Linvill, Instruction and Circulation Services Librarian, worked with two of the communication class students, Rachael Gianoli ’15 and Garrett Gemgnani ’16 to put together two focus groups to gain more insight into what students wanted from their library. Student suggestions included: more quiet spaces in the Library; longer hours; more study rooms; and availability of tea and coffee.

The results of the focus group motivated the librarians to hire a library space consultant who visited the Library for halfa-day in January 2015 and offered ideas on remodeling the Library. Working with her suggestions and some of their own, the librarians made some changes to the Library this past summer.

Jon and Ann Bowman, benefactors of the Bowman Library, visited during Menlo’s recent OAKtoberFest.

Several spaces were reconfigured so that more computers were put in the main room, which is a non-quiet area, freeing up space in the Tech Center for more quiet study carrels. To address the need for more group study space, several large tables were moved around in order to allow for easier group and project work, and group study rooms got new tables and chairs. The Library’s classroom got an overhaul, with a large projection screen, ensuring much easier viewing from all parts of the room and a much improved teaching environment.

Thanks to help from the Security Department, Bowman Library has been able to offer extended hours on a regular basis after library staff leaves for the day. A security guard keeps the main room of the Library open until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday nights, and until 3 a.m. the last two weeks of the semester through finals.

Bowman Library has also been able to meet students’ request for tea and coffee and received feedback in a handwritten note: “To whom it may concern, thank you very much for maintaining this station. It means a lot to us students.”

Thanks to ideas from students, Bowman Library has been able to provide a better study and meeting space for students.

[Read how students also redesigned the campus store, page ten]

The glistening new circulation desk and newly painted walls make the library look more modern and the workflow feel more manageable for students and librarians Melissa Pincus, Linda Smith, Cheryl Collins, Marie Varelas, Anne Linvill , and Tricia Soto.

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voking issues that students have tackled over the years – advocating for wider diversity among the student body, both protesting and supporting the Vietnam War, supporting Menlo’s move to being a coeducational institution, and decrying faculty dismissals – as well as all the dayto-day rituals that help shape a college community, such as dances, sporting events, and studying.

New Library System One of the Library’s major initiatives for 2015 was the replacement of its former integrated library system with OCLC’s WorldShare Management Services (WMS). Students and faculty arrived back on campus in Fall to a new online catalog that searches the Library’s book collection as well as journal and magazine articles. Much of the behind-the-scenes work of the librarians changed as well, as they migrated data and learned how to run the new system.

Some of the most visible changes for students and faculty include the addition of book covers in the catalog, automatic notices when items are coming due, and the ability to place holds and request items via interlibrary loan directly from the catalog.

“Black and White and Read: News Reporting at Menlo” Exhibit

Mixing the old and the new, the exhibit also features a digital display about the new online Menlo Oak Press, featuring its writers and some of their stories.

Bowman Library is happy to feature this latest chapter in the strong tradition of news reporting at Menlo.

When Cheryl Collins, Technical Services Librarian and College Archivist, and Linda Smith, Dean of Library Services, heard about the new student-run online Menlo Oak Press, they knew it was perfect for a library exhibit on the long history of journalism at Menlo College. The online paper was founded in 2015 by the Journalism Club, under the leadership of editor Taylor Morrow ‘16, and like its predecessors in print, it provides an opportunity for student activism and community engagement that invokes the principles and historic traditions of freedom of the press.

Drawing on the College Archives, the exhibit features an array of newspapers including the earliest issue in 1928 and discusses the wide range of thought-pro-

Top, During construction, the book cases were wrapped for protection. Above and right, “Black and White and Read: News Reporting at Menlo” Exhibit MENLO COLLEGE

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THE 25TH ANNUAL HAWAIIAN LUAU | APRIL 16

Top, a past Menlo College Hawaiian Luau. Bottom, Hawaii Club officers Kiyani Punzal ‘18, Vice President, Antonio Maluyo ’16, President, and Veisinia Fale ‘18, Secretary are planning the 25th Luau.

Aloha Na Aina

Traditional Entertainment by Menlo College Students “Aloha! At the 25th Annual Menlo Luau, we’re featuring special guest Kumu Mark Keali’i Ho’Omalu, featured annually in Hilo’s Merrie Monarch Hula Festival.

He was also a songwriter of Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride in the Disney animated feature film, Lilo and Stitch. My Aunty Karla will be flying in from O’ahu to prepare Kahua pig, Lomi-lomi salmon, Squid Lu’au, and her famous Haupia.

Earn SERV hours as a dancer or by helping on committees. Contact Veisinia Fale, veisinia.fale@menlo.edu to sign up for SERV hours, and our advisor, Cindy McGrew, cmcgrew@menlo.edu for sponsorship details. Join us on April 16 as the Menlo Community brings to life Aloha Na Aina.”

Antonio Maluyo ‘16, President, Hawaii Club 32

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WOMEN’S BUSINESS SOCIETY ALUMNI CAR SHOW | APRIL 2

For information or to register your car, please email: blake.barbre@menlo.edu or call 650-543-3823 for sponsorship details

APRIL 2, 2–4 PM, MENLO COLLEGE CAMPUS QUAD “If you’re ready for food, fun and cars, then gear up, gas up and get ready for an experience to remember!”

~Blake Barbre, President, Women’s Business Society

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Women’s Business Society Welcomes Guy Kawasaki oted social media expert and author Guy Kawasaki recently spoke about ways to improve personal branding at Menlo College.

Menlo College President Richard A. Moran credited Kawasaki with popularizing the use of the term “evangelist” to define the person who builds a critical mass of support for a given technology. Kawasaki fulfilled that role first at Apple, and his career has been notable for ongoing roles promoting the use of a product or technology through talks, articles, blogging, and demonstrations. Kawasaki is currently the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool.

His message to Menlo College students at the Women’s Business Society event concerned branding in social media.

Personal branding such as Kawasaki’s suggestions are emphasized by the Women’s Business Society, founded by Ashley Diamond ’15 in 2011. Diamond said, “We started the Women’s Business Society that focused on three pillars: business, social, and philanthropy. By 2015, there were 70 active members – a huge proportion for a school with less than 700 students at the time! It was a huge learning experience for me in volunteer management.”

Kawasaki is also on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, a brand ambassador for Mercedes Benz USA, and

an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley). He was the chief evangelist of Apple and also the author of The Art of the Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, Enchantment, and nine other books. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA, as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

When Diamond graduated from Menlo, the Society leadership was assumed by Natalie Leesakul. Leesakul is a bilingual double major in marketing and international management who lived abroad for many years in Thailand. She was one of the original members of the Society.

Under her leadership, the Society has grown to 80 members.

“We’re very selective about membership,” she explained. “Every member must commit to active participation and volunteering in the Society.” Under Leesakul’s leadership, the Women’s Business Society has sponsored successful events such as the recent Guy Kawasaki presentation.

When asked why new female students might want to join the Women’s Business Society, Leesakul concluded, “Join the Society if you’d like to be a part of an organization that empowers women through mentoring so that they can conquer the world.”

Top and bottom, Guy Kawasaki spoke to Menlo College students about ways to improve their personal branding.

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Female Entrepreneurs Empowered at Menlo College

Women's Business Society Founder Ashley Diamond ‘15, 2015 President Natalie Leesakul, 2016 President Blake Barbre

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runchbase, a database of startups, tech companies and the people who work in them, recently released a report on the number of women founders of US venturebacked startups. While female founders are still in the minority, there has been a rapid growth in the past five years, from 9.5% of startups with at least one woman founder in 2009, to 18% in 2014.

Menlo College is going big to accelerate the growth in women entrepreneurs, graduating women who are destined to boost the female founder statistic. Menlo students—both female and male—are learning to identify promising startups through classroom experience and professional business experience.

Entrepreneurship Professor Ron Kovas puts students through the challenge of investigating business ideas, validating the “opportunity” and developing a business plan to seek venture funding. “Launching the Venture,” a capstone class, emphasizes that an idea is just the beginning of innovation. With the sound advice of guest speakers from Silicon Valley, including venture capitalists, private equity investors and entrepreneurs, student teams develop business plan rationale and then present their arguments before a panel of Silicon Valley investors. “It is definitely hands-on and not just academic rhetoric,” said Kovas.

To further promote student entrepreneurialism, every Menlo College student undertakes a supervised workplace internship in Silicon Valley before graduation.

The small size of the campus and the close collaboration with faculty creates a setting for team-building, networking, and preparing ideas for marketing.

President Richard A. Moran said, “It’s every pair of hands on deck on a small campus. Everyone is valued for what they bring to the table.”

Political Science Professor Melissa Michelson concurred, “Menlo College is a great place to be a female student because of the small size of our classes. In large classes, men tend to dominate the conversation, and women can be overlooked and silenced. In a small class, that just isn’t as likely to happen.“

gold mine and can really have fun expanding their networks and practicing interactions with senior executives. Menlo College is a perfect place for that.”

Alumna Ashley Diamond, a marketing manager at Adello, a global advertising technology company in Redwood Shores, founded the Menlo Women’s Business Society in 2011.

“I wanted to get more involved at Menlo College and there were lots of opportunities to start anything you want.”

Marketing Professor Deborah Brown McCabe said, “Menlo College encourages and supports student leadership, and does so in methods that are especially supportive of women’s ways of engaging. Not only does Menlo ‘talk the talk,’ the College ‘walks the leadership walk.’ Menlo informally and formally trains our female students to be strong, articulate, confident women, skills that will serve them well in the workplace.”

Nita Singh Kaushal, founder of Miss CEO, has been a frequent speaker at Menlo College Women’s Business Society events.

Kaushal has also served as Co-President of Yahoo! Women in Tech, an organization committed to attracting, developing and retaining more women in technical and executive positions. “It is always inspiring to connect with the young women of Menlo College, who are eager to develop their personal leadership toolkit by learning essential skills such as negotiation, effective communication, risk taking, and networking. These students realize that in order to make meaningful contributions and excel in all phases of their lives, it is valuable to learn how to lead and explore fearlessly.”

Recent graduates such as Erin Bedell, working at Liquid Agency, Google employee Katrina Smith, Facebook employee Emily Estes, and MileIQ employee Brittany Olguin, are all beginning their professional climb in businesses that range from startups to big players.

If Menlo’s aspiring female founders have it their way, gender statistics in business will eventually trend on an equal level.

As Economics Professor Craig Medlen defined it, “Education— here and elsewhere—should be gender neutral.”

Alumna Ewa Zwonarz ‘03, marketing strategist and author, said, “Many students don’t realize that they are sitting on a MENLO COLLEGE

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Steven Lee Myers Discusses The New Tsar at Menlo College

Members of the Journalism Club with author Steven Lee Myers

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literary event in November featured Steven Lee Myers, a 26year veteran of The New York Times, and author of The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin published by Alfred A. Knopf Books. Myers has extensive experience reporting from Russia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq and, as well, New York City and Washington, D.C. Myers is a correspondent in the Washington Bureau of The New York Times and he covers foreign policy and national security issues. He began his career at The Times and worked in New York City until moving to Washington, where he covered first the State Department and then the Pentagon through the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

He has reported on conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Iraq.

In 2003, he was “embedded” with the Army’s Third Infantry Division during the invasion and reported extensively on the division’s experience. He returned to Iraq and became bureau chief.

In Washington, he also covered the White House during the presidency of George W. Bush in 2007 and 2008 and has written on the State Department during the tenures now of five different 36

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Secretaries of State, most recently Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Kerry.

Myers received a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric from the University of California

at Berkeley, graduating with honors.

As a Rotary International scholar, he received a master’s degree, with distinction, in literature and art history from the University of Reading in England.

The Story Behind the Online Newspaper

MENLO OAK PRESS

by Taylor Morrow ’16 The first new publication at Menlo School and Junior College was published in October of 1928. It was a one-page paper with the title The Menlo???, question marks included. Since its creation, the Menlo newspaper has had many different titles.

In 1930, the school decided on the name El Roble Blanco after having a naming contest. In 1936 the title was changed to Oak and Acorn and it was the first student paper in the United States to be reproduced by photolithic process. In 1969 the name was changed again to The Oak. From 1975 to 2009 the Menlo College paper was titled The Menlo Oak and was published on a consistent basis. In 2009 the paper transitioned to being online but then slowly dwindled out.

In 2014 the decision was made to recreate and reinvent the Menlo College newspaper in order to provide students with a place to pursue the practice of journalism and inform the Menlo community. The Journalism Club was formed with a focus to increase awareness and involvement with the paper to increase readership.

The Journalism Club surveyed students and faculty asking for title suggestions and interesting topics. With the help of the Writing Center, Menlo College students successfully created an online newspaper titled Menlo Oak Press. This semester the Journalism Club helped the Bowman Library with their journalism exhibit entitled “Black and White and Read: News Reporting at Menlo.”

[See page 31.]

Writing and Oral Communication Center Expands Support for Students

by Erik Bakke, Writing Center and Intensive English Program Director

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he Writing and Oral Communication Center has a new name and expanded focus. Dr. Marianne Neuwirth began her first full-time semester on campus this past fall as the Director of Oral Communication Programs, and Erik Bakke continues in his role as Writing Center & Intensive English Program Director. The Writing and Oral Communication Center had a record 1168 visitors to its Bowman Library location in Fall of 2015 and also delivered and sponsored several special presentations, such as The New York Times reporter Steven Lee Myers discussion of his 2015 book The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin. The Center’s other workshops, evening events, and classroom lectures served an additional 777 students, for a record total of 1945 students.

The Writing and Oral Communication Center provides support for all students throughout their years at Menlo College, including guidance on course, co-curricular, and extracurricular writing and oral communication needs. The Center has continued to work extensively with students completing their Senior Capstone and Senior Thesis projects, and it has begun training students in effective interviewing and presentation skills, including the dos and don’ts of PowerPoint. This last semester, the Transition to College course for first-year students included mandatory visits to the Writing and Oral Communication Center, the Math Center, and the Academic Success Center. During a review of their first semester, students said the Writing and Oral Communication Center was very helpful: “The staff is really nice and I have one-on-one connec-

tions with faculty that I wouldn’t have elsewhere” and “They aren’t in a rush to get it over with. They’ll spend time with you.”

The Writing and Oral Communication Center continues to support the Journalism Club as it and the Menlo Oak Press grow, with the student paper moving from monthly to biweekly publication.

It is also supporting the resurrection of the campus Radio Club, and for 2016, a Multimedia Center is in the works. Dr. Marianne Neuwirth and Erik Bakke will be facilitating workshops and educational seminars for students, faculty and staff, supporting their work with digitallybased communication and various webbased platforms. Training students in interpersonal and professional communication etiquette to help them be “job ready” is also part of the agenda for 2016.

“They aren’t in a rush to get it over with. They’ll spend time with you.” A student review

Dr. Marianne Neuwirth, Director of Oral Communication Programs, and Erik Bakke, Writing Center and Intensive English Program Director, welcome students to the Writing and Oral Communications Center.

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enlo Roots is an interactive website and mobile portal where students, faculty, and staff can engage together in all aspects of campus life. Menlo Roots is the main hub for the campus event calendar, SERV hour submission, campus event and organi-zation registration, campus and organization elections and surveys. It also allows for photos, messages, and news to be shared.

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Chef Koochooloo is thrilled with the participation from Menlo College students. “We could not have asked for a better team,” said Sabourian.

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“Chef Koochooloo has shown me the skills to succeed as a start-up through hard work, communication, and determination,” said Guzman-Alvarez.

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Enrique Guzman-Alvarez, Keisha Watanabe, Dustin Nakayama, Jiayi Zhu, and Zhihao Feng all contributed to Chef Koochooloo’s marketing success.

According to Chef Koochooloo’s Founder & CEO Layla Sabourian, “Menlo students came to us eager to learn. We loved their positive attitude and energy.”

The students worked on social media accounts, the app database, a video, accounting and more.

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by Enrique Guzman-Alvarez ‘15 hef Koochooloo is an international educational organization that guides kids and their parents on international culinary journeys while enhancing math, science, and geography skills. At the same time, the experience raises awareness about worldwide causes that affect kids. The platform includes an after-school program, as well as a complementary iPad application on iTunes. As a start- up that looks to create healthy lifestyles, Chef Koochooloo has been making strides thanks to the involvement of five Menlo College interns.

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Members of the Menlo College community can view the site at Roots.Menlo.edu to check out what is going on around campus.

Student Affairs provided tshirts with the tree art (left) to launch the new portal.

NASDAQ Private Summer Concert Series at Menlo College

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ummer 2015 saw the debut of the Menlo College Summer Concert Series.Sponsored by Nasdaq Private Market, five, free concerts were held on the campus quad during June, July and August. A mixture of live music, food and fun, members of the community enjoyed four local bands, as well as an a capella performance by musicians from Facebook Google, Pinterest, Dropbox and Twitter.

A celebrity master of ceremonies kept things lively with raffles for fun giveaways.

Bands who shared their talents included Murphy’s Lawyers, UnderCover, Dresden Westerly and El Desayuno. Overheard from a guest at the last event of the series, “attending the concerts were the highlight of their summer!”

This successful event will return to Menlo College on June 3, June 10, June 24 and July 15, 2016. Look for more information on www.menlo.edu.

Letters to the Editor of The Menlo Advantage Magazine Are Welcome Don’t forget that comments on the Menlo Advantage magazine are always welcome. You can send along your questions or thoughts to pr@menlo.edu.

Zach Osborne Discusses his Role as Director of Internships at Menlo College MENLO: What types of questions or requests do students usually have for you when they pop into your office?

ZACH: We get all types of requests, but the most common are: • How to prepare for and be successful in an interview • Getting feedback on a resume or cover letter • How to get approval for an internship a student found on their own approved for academic credit MENLO: Are students expected to have their own ideas for employers, or does the internship office direct them?

Zach Osborne, Director of Internships, with his faithful beagle, Maggie.

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he Center for Academic & Professional Success provides a full range of career-related services to the students of Menlo College. Within the Center, Zach Osborne, Director of Internships, specifically focuses on the for-credit internship program.

Zach explained, “I take the lead on guiding students through the preparation necessary to search for and be successful in an internship. I help students apply for and secure internships, and work with interns during their internships to ensure they get the most personal and professional learning and experience possible. As well, I hold primary responsibility for building new, and managing existing, relationships with internship employers.”

ZACH: As part of the preparation that we guide students through before they begin searching for their internship, students are asked to think about the type of internship they would like to pursue, what goals they have for their internship experience, and which companies/organizations they might be interested in targeting. Once they’ve gathered these initial thoughts, they meet with a staff member in the Center for Academic & Professional Success where we work with them to develop a plan that will put them on the right track to pursue internships of interest that are aligned with their personal and professional goals. The plan has three components: 1. Strategies for approaching companies/organizations of interest that are not already approved internship employers.

2. A review of resources beyond those internal to Menlo that would be helpful for the student to use to identify possible internship opportunities of interest.

MENLO: Where do you find new internships?

ZACH: New internship employers come from a variety of sources: • Employers approach Menlo to get involved as internship employers.

• Students make connections with companies through their own efforts/ networks, then bring those contacts to us for approval as internship employers.

• Students identify specific companies/ organizations of interest and we work with them to try to make contact to learn about internship opportunities.

• We approach specific companies that we feel would be good potential internship employers and share information about the Internship Program to determine if they’re interested in participating.

• A variety of more general marketing efforts such as emails to all Bay Area employers who have accounts in CareerLink, posts in professional groups related to majors we have here at Menlo on LinkedIn, etc.

MENLO: Approximately how many jobs are in the “stable” of choices for internships?

ZACH: We have over 300 approved internship employers at present with a healthy pipeline of employers who are at various stages of the approval process to become new internship employers.

Organizations interested in hosting an intern can contact Zach at zach.osborne@menlo.edu for more information.

If you’re visiting the Quad, you might recognize him with his beagle, Maggie.

3. Identification of opportunities already approved in CareerLink to which they might apply.

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Alumni Notes 1960s

Karl Buder ’66 and Cissy Cotter just returned from New York City where they celebrated their anniversary and had a fabulous visit with family. Karl, John Rooke ’88, Andreas Strieve ’85, Enrique Ybarra Valdenebros ’91 all worked hard to produce the 7th Annual Senor Carlos López Memorial Tournament over the OAKtoberFest Weekend.

1970s Barbara Sullivan ’75 writes: “Great to hear from you! I have relocated down to Aromas, which is down by San Juan Bautista. I am, for the moment, still working at NetApp in Sunnyvale, while looking for a new position.”

Faysal Alaquil ‘79 wrote: “Greetings from Saudi Arabia. I own Alaquil Trading Est. www.alaquil.com , and I’m currently the Director of Business Development & “Binaa Wa Amal / Building Hope” Division - Construction Products Holding Company www.cpcholding.com. I am the Chairman of the Advisory Committee, Architecture Department, College of Engineering, member of the “Honorary Advisory Board” at Effat University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. I am also a member of the World Economic Forum / CPC Industry Partnership, and member of U.N. Pearl Initiative Integration Board www.pearlinitiative.org as well as a member of various charity groups supporting CSR / Sustainable Development activities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and an official participant of the UN Global Compact. I have over 38 years of experience in the executive management of private companies, I hold a bachelor degree in Business Administration and a Ph.D. in Business Management.”

1980s D. A. Griscom ’80 has returned to campus a number of times, providing his observations and philanthropic support for the Bowman Library through the Griscom Foundation. D.A. cherishes the philosophical and sometimes metaphysical knowledge and experiences presented by Dr. Diane Harvey, which shaped and provided valuable insights for his own life and career in the venture capital business world.

1990s Jan Schalkwijk ’97 is now in the Bay Area, as a CFA with his company, JPS Global Investments www.jpsglobalinvest.com (415) 315-9587. He also has investments through the Africa Fund, and readily seeks connections with other alumni who are from the African continent or neighboring regions.

Sean Spanek ’99 is Realtor and Managing Partner of Spanek Real Estate and Sportstar Relocation. As a member of the Alumni Council, Sean is now actively helping Menlo by engaging others in campus events, suggesting marketing strategies that offer prospective students the opportunity to attend.

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John Rohrer ‘89 and Alan Reid ‘87 caught up at Menlo Connect.

2000s Amit Khatwani ’00. Amit spent February in the Bay Area, planning to relocate with his young family. He came to Menlo for lunch, meeting with alum D. A. Griscom, Suzanne Evers, and Dr. Craig Medlen. Amit has extensive experience within investment management and commercial banking spanning over twelve years. Before founding Optim Group in 2012, he was with Barclays Wealth, Singapore. Here Amit led the Business Support team aligned with the South East Asia desk. He holds a degree in International Management and Management Information Systems from Menlo College, California. Amit has served as a member of the College’s Board of Trustees.

Cyrus Shahriari ’00 returned to live in the South Bay after many years in Germany and Europe. Always a gifted computer guy, Cyrus continues to provide project and technology services in the health industry.

He and his fellow Menlo alum, Rebecca Wong, enjoyed the summer music concerts every other Friday evening. [See page 38.] They connected with Dr. Craig Medlen whenever possible.

Alan Fernandez’04 says, “All goes well. Busy with much in the air at the same time. The 2015 World Stem Cell Summit in Dec. is taking place in Georgia in December. The Genetics Policy Institute is in the process of merging with the Regenerative Medicine Foundation, a nonprofit that was established by Dr. Tony Atala, one of the most high profile stem cell researchers in the field who runs the Wake Forest institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina. I’m raising money for my music program that is to launch in December.”

Peter Johnson ’04 works as a loan officer for HomeStreet Bank in Pleasanton. Sara Williams Johnson ‘03 works as a nurse case manager at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek. The couple married in 2005 and live in Pleasant Hill, CA with their two sons.

Francis Adanza ’05 is now Director of Marketing at Zephyr in Fremont, CA. He is on the Alumni Council and is interested in participating in an internship club.

Sara Fulp-Allen ’07 was inducted into the Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame. Her father, Lee Allen (Menlo Women’s Wrestling Coach 2001 - 2011) was inducted into the same Hall of Fame in 1998.

She was named 2014 Youth Olympic Coach for USA Wrestling for the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China last summer.

Stephani Kier ’07 is the international sales manager for Sleep Innovations which distributes foam mattress products through Costco and other major retailers. She spent time during her business trip reconnecting with her former basketball teammates, including Ashlynn Dolcini. A highly motivated, focused leader, Stephani says, “My goal in life is to bring as much as I can to the table through constantly learning and pushing myself to my limits.” She now enjoys snowboarding in the Seattle area.

Jimmy (Gimbler) Escobedo Aliaga ’09 wrote: “My job is to work with low income community, family and individuals helping them start their own family or individual business. It is a difficult work due to the lack of resources they can access but when I get there, I do bring all what they need: training, knowledge, capital, and additional resources due the networking I built during the last four years. That is my work and more. Few months back I quit my job and I started my own organization and I created something, a place, a project where those who with entrepreneurial spirit can go to get the support and knowledge that society denied due to filter it has created. I do own dozens of stories to share… Hugs, Jimmy”

2010s Adrianna Kinhult ’10 wrote from Hawaii: I received my Bachelor’s in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Psychology from Menlo in 2010. I started working in the Pension Administration field in 2011 as a Distribution Administrator (distributing 401(k) and pension to current and terminated employees of our clients). After giving birth to my son in 2012 I started to think about what career I really wanted to get into. I remembered how much I enjoyed accounting in high school (took 2 years) and I decided that I could see myself working in the accounting field for the rest of my working career. I went back to school in 2013 to get my Masters in Accounting. I graduated in 2014 and started working at Boeckmann & Associates, LLC, my official first accounting job, 2 weeks later. I am currently working toward getting my CPA Certificate and will most likely start my own accounting business in the short future after I get my Certificate.”

Jordan Winssinger ‘10 reporting from Los Angeles: “I was living and working in Paris for 3 years then decided on a random busy day at work that I wanted to make movies, went to NYC then Phoenix to see my dad and brainstorm my new endeavor. There, I went to the Idyllwild International Indie Film Festival. I also got

some good advice from my brother Frederic: ‘If you don’t know what to do with your life just be aware of the people you enjoy hanging out with, the people you share the same mind with or the people who have things in common with. Inquire to what they do, and see if that is something you want to make your career.’ Had a blast at the festival, decided to explore the world of acting in LA, where I’ve been living in LA for over two years.

I’ve had a few gigs here, finding a bigger passion for directing. I have been helping my friends with their ‘demo-reels’ and ‘audition tapes’ and learned about creating ads then casting and directing the ads. I was blown away from the idea, so now I’m torn between acting, directing, and advertising.”

Michael Liguori ’11 wrote: “I am no longer in the Bay Area and moved to New York City in 2013. I currently work for an organization called The Mission Continues, a national nonprofit that empowers veterans to serve their country in new ways. I enjoy my job greatly and NYC is incredible. As for writing, I currently blog on The Huffington Post and work on projects that will hopefully give more folks an in depth look as to what it is really like for a veteran here at home.“ You can reach me on Twitter: @mikeliguori or Blog: medium.com/@mikeliguori Website: michaelliguori.com Yoji Kano ‘14 wrote back to Menlo: “I’m Yoji, glad to hear from you. I studied in Menlo College for one semester during the spring 2014, and am proud of the experience there. I would like to join Menlo College Alumni, and also Singapore Facebook page. I still love Menlo, what I did in Menlo, and people and circumstances of Menlo. From April, I have been working at Taiyo Yuden (Singapore) Pte Ltd as an Internal Procurement Control Executive, dealing with Japanese electronics materials such as ceramic capacitors and inductors needed for iPhone, and many electronics devices.“ Remember the article about marketing major Kumkum Pandey’15 on page 15 in the Spring 2015 issue of Menlo Advantage? Kumkum interned at Plug and Play Tech Center and graduated in May. She stopped in to visit us with her update. After an intense job search she is very pleased to report that she will be working in Santa Monica at Network of One. Founded in 2013, they Kumkum Pandey’15 are a predictive analytics software company. Their mission is to support the web’s most passionate independent video creators and transform the monetization of digital media. Kumkum will be working as a content acquisition analyst-buyer.

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It Happened at Menlo College for Phil Durbrow ’60 Philip Durbrow is Chairman & CEO of Marshall Strategy, a firm that specializes in developing positioning strategies for a range of national and international clients in finance, technology, real estate, entertainment, healthcare and education.

His education clients include the entire UC system with individual strategies for UC Berkeley, UCSF, and Berkeley Law. In addition, he has worked with Georgetown University, Rockefeller University, Fordham University and California Institute of Technology.

He began his education on a football scholarship at Menlo, where he was President of the class of 1960. He went on to UC Berkeley, University of Nebraska, and Harvard Business School.

None of which would have happened without Menlo College!

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the phone, called someone at Cal and said he had a great guy, with not so great grades, that would be a great addition to the student body. He handed the phone to me and the person he was talking to asked if I was ready to be a serious student. I said I was, and he agreed to accept me. Pretty extraordinary, but a tribute to Berkeley’s respect for Menlo.

The First Thing

Before finishing at Berkeley, I joined the Army and was in a remote part of SE Asia when I received orders to report to the US Olympic Rowing Coach in Seattle. The Cold War was still on, and we were competing with communist countries in the Olympics.

They were putting their athletes in the military, so that they could train full time.

by Phil Durbrow ’60

grew up under just my mother in Carmel. We were very poor.

I hadn’t even considered going to college, because of the cost and was considering the Marines. Then one day, I found myself sitting in front of three very nice gentlemen who interviewed me and offered me a football scholarship to Menlo. This was totally unexpected, as I knew (I thought) that Menlo was a college for rich kids.”

Menlo did for me was to put me on a track for a college education.

The Second Thing

Menlo did for me was to teach me about rowing. Duvall Hecht was my professor and an Olympic Gold Medalist. He set up a crew, using Stanford’s boathouse and equipment, and in our second year we were finalists in the 1960 Olympic Trials.

But when I graduated, I still couldn’t afford college and I wound up doing stunt work for motion pictures and TV in Hollywood.

(I grew up working in a stable, cleaning stalls, grooming and training horses, and teaching riding.) In those days, the early 60’s, every thing on TV was a western, so I got lots of work for a couple years and was able to put some money away.

I came back to Menlo and told one of the great professors, Professor Felix Knaut, that I wanted to continue my education.

The Third Thing Menlo did for me was to get me accepted

by UC Berkeley. As I was talking to Professor Knaut, he picked up

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The Fourth Thing that Menlo did for me was again done by Professor Hecht. He contacted the Army and told them they had a talented oarsman in their ranks and that I should be assigned for training.

This time, my boat won the 1964 Olympic Trials and we were off to Tokyo for the Olympics, where my boat won a bronze medal.

The Fifth Thing

Menlo did for me was to enable me to become an Olympian by teaching me the sport and supporting and advocating for me years after I left Menlo.

I finished college on an Army Officer program at University of Nebraska and later completed an Extended Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.

It all started with that amazing scholarship from Menlo.

ALAN REID ’87 Invests in His Relationship with Menlo College

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lan Reid ’87 has recently sold Forward Management, an asset management firm he founded with Gordon Getty.

Reid’s first call came from his longtime friend Alexander Panagopulos ’89. The two had kept in touch since leaving Menlo. Panagopulos appointed Reid director of the Arista Group, an international business and family office that focuses on maritime transportation, hospitality, food and beverage and senior care. Arista Group was founded by Mr. Panagopulos after he sold his ferry business, Arista Shipping. Arista/Panagopulos was featured in the Wall Street Journal as the first ferry operator to be granted a license by the US to offer service to Cuba.

Before his position at the Arista Group, Reid spent 14 years in investment management as President and CEO at Forward Management. From his time at Forward he learned, “We need to tirelessly focus on how we can be better as an industry, and as people. As an asset management executive I believe in challenging the industry from within.” Reid credits his critical thinking learned at Menlo (giving special credit to Dr. Craig Medlen) for his industry successes. Alan was the first to call out the industry on mutual fund market timing, engaging with the SEC and later with Elliott Spitzer to support his own shareholders. A regular on CNBC, Alan points to a business communications class, where the application of academics first jelled. Reid was honored when Sungard Expert Solutions formalized his advisory role, by bringing Nobel Prize winner Harry Markowitz in to debate modern portfolio theory applications. Among other boards, Reid served on The Investment Company Institute Board of Governors, allowing him access to regular congressional discussions and a seat on an industry working group at The Federal Reserve in 2009.

He is an enthusiastic Menlo College alumnus who has actively supported the College as the past President of the Menlo College Alumni Association.

Reid has found Menlo alums central to his life. Whether being chided by friends Geir Ramleth, Fran Mann-Craig, John Rohrer, Glenn Nielsen and Mike Tomars to attend Menlo events, or welcomed to Dean Witter by Tyler Whitten. Menlo friends have always been there. On September 11, 2001, he bumped into Trisha Roney and Penny Miller (Penelope Ann Miller) in his NY hotel lobby. While an eerie day, they took solace in their reunion, and enjoyed a solemn stroll through Central Park.

Trisha had dated Alan’s roommate Robin Russell, and the two were among the few Menlo students that Penny had entrusted with her plan to leave school and wait tables in NY, while she tried out for Broadway plays. Over the years Reid’s business brought him in touch with many alumni including Amit Khatwani, Dave Stickney, Saed Amidi and Lawry Manna.

Alan Reid ’87 at the 2015 OAKtoberFest birthday celebration for Dorothy Skala

Reid’s Menlo story begins in 1981, when he transferred from Ohio Wesleyan after his freshman year at the suggestion of his boss and Menlo alumnus Bill Squires. Originally from New York, he came to California and was working as a lifeguard at the Circus Club to rehabilitate from a swimming accident. While Reid took an extended college route, enjoying a year at art school, he notes that Menlo was there for him when he was ready, warmly remembering many late afternoon debates with faculty members Brokes, McDonough and Medlen. Reid’s colorful college career paid off when he graduated. He was awarded the Faculty Award for leadership, character, and service at Menlo - possibly a shock to Deans Munster and Steiner, but an accolade to their and Dorothy Skala’s commitment to students.

He remembers his dear friend Rudi Lang, who would let him sleep on the floor after late night study sessions. He fondly recalls his experience rooming with Lord Robin Russell, and their wonderful January semester experimenting with conversational French, the lovely Professor Claudie Hester and Elena Lopez. Russell and Reid still stay in touch weekly, and find frequent opportunities to meet in person.

Reid and fellow classmates were saddened by the early passing of his friend Adi Dassler (son of the Adidas founder), but have arranged reunions in London, Geneva, and Menlo Park. Reid is hoping alumni can join him in the UAE with Menlo’s “Poetress of Light”, Bahareh Amidi. http://www.bahareh.com/ On his radar is Thom Dunaway ’87 (class president), founder of Wheretostay.com who is a renowned expert on the Caribbean, promising potential events for Menlo offsite reunions.

Reid says he has always reached out to his Menlo friends, faculty and students, which has given him a network his east coast prep school friends were always jealous of. Today, he stays in touch with Menloites thru email, Facebook, LinkedIn and even Words-w-Friends, but encourages everyone to follow him on twitter @JAlanReid MENLO COLLEGE

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“Keeping Fit Starts in Your Mind”

Joel Harper ’87

Celebrity personal trainer, fitness author and Menlo College alumnus Joel Harper ’87

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elebrity personal trainer and fitness author Joel Harper ’87 has been developing custom workouts for personal training in New York City for 18 years. His clients range from Dr. Oz to Olympic medalists to 10-year-old kids just learning to appreciate their health. He regularly works with well-known actors preparing for new roles, musicians embarking on world tours and business executives desiring increased energy and strength. He has created all of the personal workout chapters for the New York Times best selling YOU books series and the accompanying workout DVDs with Drs. Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen. The former Menlo College student answered a few questions about fitness and his time at Menlo College.

• Were you into fitness and modeling during the time you attended Menlo College?

Yes, fitness has always been a passion of mine. I always took full advantage of the area’s incredible weather which is perfect for an outdoor workout and the hills make for a challenging bike ride. At the time, most of my modeling jobs were in San Francisco and New York.

• Do you have any special memories of your time attending Menlo College?

I went to Menlo not knowing anyone, so I had to start from scratch meeting new people. I was able to connect and create some lifelong friends that I am still in contact with today. I have very fond memories of the fun I had with Talley Stewart, Billy Ryan, Helena O’dell and Peter Longo.

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• For readers who are intrigued by the notion of “tapping the power of their mind,” to control weight, how would you suggest that they start?

Start in nature away from anything man made and by yourself, so all you have is your own mind. Getting your mind in the right place is the first step. My new book, Mind Your Body takes you step by step through the 10 core concepts to live an optimally balanced lifestyle based on my 3-step holistic approach.

But the first step has to be the mind. Once you have the right mind-set, stick to it and the rest will start to fall into place. Be in control of your weight, or anything for that matter, with a positive mind-set. The connection between the mind and all that we do has a huge impact on our lives and the lives of those around us.

• If someone wants to start out slow, and only has 10 minutes a day to “mind their body,” what would you recommend that they do in 10 minutes?

I would recommend doing body weight workouts-using your body as your gym-no equipment. 10 minutes might not seem like much time but 10 minutes does make a difference if you use it efficiently and effectively. The JoelHarper YouTube channel has a variety of workouts that take 10 minutes, or less, to do.

• Any physical activity that you prefer?

Living in New York City, I find that my physical activities change with each season but I enjoy it all. I bike everywhere and if there is something I have yet to try I am always ready to give it a go!

Honoring Commencement Speakers & Honorees from 2000–2015

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photo exhibition in the Fireside Room pays tribute to some of the global leaders who have been honored at Menlo College commencement ceremonies over the past fifteen years. Each one of them has touched our community with personal stories of challenge, persistence, and innovation in both the public and private sectors. Collectively, these individuals have underscored the importance of helping others through contributions to business, philanthropy, and many other endeavors. They have proven the value of giving back by their positive impact across the globe.

Carol Bartz

Charles “Chuck” Smith

Gavin Newsom

Khaled Juffali

Jane Shaw

Guy Kawasaki

Jed York

Anna Eshoo

John Pritzker

Bernard Osher

Michael Weatherly

Mark Templeton

It is a fitting occasion for Menlo College graduates to be inspired by the wisdom of such stellar role models as they begin their careers in the world of business.

As President John F. Kennedy said, “True leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.”

Commencement Speakers & Honorees: 2000–2015 2000 Earle Chiles ‘57, Earle Chiles Foundation 2001 Jackie Speier, Congresswoman, California District 14 2002 Carol Bartz, CEO, Autodesk, Inc. 2003 Charles “Chuck” Smith, CEO, SBC West 2004 Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco 2005 Richard Pombo, Congressman, California District 11 2006 Rebecca Cohn, Assemblymember, California District 24 2007 Russell Frankel, President, Frankel Family Foundation 2007 T.J. Rodgers, Founder & CEO, Cypress Semiconductor Corporation 2008 Richard Li, Chairman, PCCW Limited 2009 Khaled Juffali, Managing Partner & Vice Chairman, E.A. Juffali & Brothers Co. 2009 Steve Westly, Founder of The Westly Group, former Controller & CFO, CA 2010 Jane Shaw, Chairman of the Board, Intel Corporation 2010 Robert (Bob) Lurie ‘46, Chairman of the Board, the Lurie Company 2011 Alan Salzman, Co-Founder & CEO, VantagePoint Capital Partners 2012 Guy Kawasaki, Author & Entrepreneur 2012 K.S. “Bud” Adams, Jr. ’42, Founder, Titans/Oilers 2013 Jed York, CEO, San Francisco 49ers 2014 Anna Eshoo, Congresswoman, California District 18 2014 John Pritzker ’76, Founder, Geolo Capital 2014 Bernard Osher, Founder, the Bernard Osher Foundation 2015 Michael Weatherly ’88, Actor (Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo in NCIS) 2015 Mark Templeton, President & CEO, Citrix

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IN MEMORIAM Byron Van Alstyne ’42 L&S

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enlo College mourns the recent passing of Hall of Fame Basketball player, Byron Van Alstyne ’42. Van Alstyne competed as an Oak from 1946-48 as a member of the men’s basketball team. He was inducted into the Menlo College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006 alongside his brother Bruce who was a standout football player for the Oaks from 194647. Byron’s on-court prowess netted him Northern California Junior College Conference first team honors during the 1947-48 season and on two different occasions during his tremendous sophomore season on the hardwood, Van Alstyne tied the thenMenlo single game scoring record of 22 points. He also spent time as a teacher and coach at then Menlo Junior College.

Following his playing days at Menlo he went on to compete for the University of Southern California Trojans for a pair of seasons and also continued his schooling at Stanford. Van Alstyne is also a member of the Burlingame High School Athletic Hall of Fame and the San Mateo County Hall of Fame. His professional career included 34 years as a P.E. teacher and coach for the Jefferson Union High School District.

He is fondly remembered by his students and fellow faculty as one of those unique teachers who cared for his students beyond the classroom and kept in touch with many long after he retired. Byron graduated from Burlingame High School, attended Menlo College and the University of Southern California where he obtained his Bachelors and Masters Degrees.

Frank Foehl Card ’40 L&S

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n July 26, 2011, Frank joined his lovely Margery, after celebrating his 90th birthday. A lifelong resident of the Westside, Encino, CA, Frank was proud of his lineage from General John Stark and Benjamin Franklin. He leaves his children, David (Cristine) Card, Thomas (Barbara) Card, and Catherine (Scott) Marquardt.

Richard Walden Rhodes ‘41 L&S

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etired Superior Court Judge Richard (Dusty) Walden Rhodes passed away peacefully, with his wife at his side, at age 91.

Judge Rhodes was born in San Francisco, where his parents, Arthur Pym and Louise Walden Rhodes, were also born. He spent his entire life in California, with the exception of his tour of duty as a First Lieutenant with the United States Army in World War II. Judge Rhodes received an AA degree from Menlo College in 1941, Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from UCLA, and graduated from Stanford Law School in the Class of 1952. That graduating class included Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, William Rehnquist, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and Utah Governor Scott Matheson. He was a partner in the Palo Alto law firm of Moerdyke, Anderson, Evans 46

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and Rhodes from 1952 until 1959. In 1958 he was elevated to the Justice Court in the West Valley Area. In 1959, when that Court became a Municipal Court, he began to devote his full time to his judicial duties as a Municipal Court Judge. He was appointed in 1968 to the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Santa Clara by Governor Ronald Reagan.

Philip L. Williams ’46 L&S

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hilip L. Williams ’46 L&S passed away on May 11, after a brief illness. He was born in Palo Alto and spent most of his youth in Oakland and Berkeley. After attending Menlo College, he attended Stanford University and graduated in 1949 with a BS in Industrial Engineering. While at Stanford he became a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. He received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1951. In the summer of 1950 he met the love of his life, Anna Jean Ellsworth of Deer Lodge, MT, while they were both working at a soda fountain in Yellowstone Park. Phil began his career as General Manager at a company formed by his father, Philip Samuel Williams, and Dr. Oliver Johnson in 1928. The company, Johnson-Williams Instruments, was based in Palo Alto, manufactured gas detectors (the “J-W Sniffer” was trademarked) and has since been recognized as the first electronics company in Silicon Valley. Following his time at Johnson-Williams, Phil decided to pursue teaching and received his credential from San Jose State in 1967. He taught accounting for 26 years at City College of San Francisco before retiring in 1994. Phil’s love of jazz started in his youth, and he enjoyed playing the piano. He was an avid Stanford football fan.

Stanley William Hulett ’58 L&S

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tanley William Hulett ’58 L&S passed away peacefully on July 1, 2013 with his loving wife Mary Ann at his side. Stan spent 10 years in the lumber industry before going to Washington D.C. as a legislative assistant in Congress. He later served as Associate Director of the National Park Service and Deputy Director of Interior’s BOR. After government service, he was VP of the American Paper Institute in D.C. and Executive VP of CA Forest Protective Association in Sacramento, CA.

Frank Leslie Griffith ’52 SBA

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rank Leslie Griffith passed peacefully on April 7th, in Reno, surrounded by his loving Patricia and family. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1927, and grew up in Highland Park. His family relocated to Auburn, CA in the 1940’s. He began his college education at Northwestern, then graduated from Menlo College,

IN MEMORIAM after serving in the Army during the Second World War. He spent 40 dedicated years in research and development, and was highly respected in his field when he retired in 1985. He raised his family in Los Altos, California before retiring to Reno, Nevada. Griff, as his friends and family called him, was a devoted and tireless advocate for the wilderness. He and his wife and children enjoyed the mountain home which he designed and built, bordering the wilderness in Silver Lake, Lassen County.

Griff had been an active volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center, in Sausalito, California, for many years, and was instrumental in the successful rescue of Humphrey the Whale.

a cowboy at heart and loved spending time at Rancho de Los Caballeros in Wickenburg, AZ.

James M. Burns II ’75

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ames M. Burns II ’75 passed away on Sunday, August 9, from cancer. Classmates reflected on Menlo days, remembering how those times shaped all of their lives forever. “When we lose one of our own from those days it is a personal loss,” wrote Anne Brown.

Ronald Olmstead ’56

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onald Olmstead ’56 a fifth generation Californian, passed away peacefully on May 9, 2015 surrounded by family members. Born in San Jose in 1934, Ron was proud of his heritage as a member of one of Santa Clara Valley’s pioneer farm families.

Ron was a member of the 1950 Paly football team that went 10-0 under coach Hod Ray. After graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Ron worked for many years as an engineer in the aerospace industry before joining his family’s summer training camp business, the United Spirit Association. Ron directed USA camps for thousands of young people throughout the Western United States. An early proponent of positive coaching, Ron was one of the founders of the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) in the Bay Area and conducted the first AYSO training camps at U.C. Santa Cruz. Ron played a key role in the production of the Opening Ceremonies for Super Bowl XIX, the Olympic Soccer Tournament and the 1994 World Cup.

David James Williams ’64 L&S

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avid James Williams ’64 L&S passed away in 2014 at the age of 70. He was a resident of Pleasant Grove, UT.

John Paul Ngiramerand Sugiyama ’03

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ohn Paul Ngiramerand Sugiyama ‘03 died in a tragic car accident on December 12, 2015 at the age of 34.

He and Rita Wang had married in July John Paul Ngiramerand Sugiuama ‘03 in Napa. John Paul was born in Palau, one in a family of 7 children. His sister Mary Sugiyama graduated from Menlo in 2005. John Paul was a freshman lefty pitcher for the 2000 Menlo Oaks. JP listed his Menlo awards for community service and his good grades as the biggest honors he received. He was a paralegal at Cooley LLP in Palo Alto and lived in Redwood City. His work ethic, patience, kindness, charming personality, thoughtfulness, his families, and friends were second to none. After a memorial service in Fremont, CA, his final resting place was Negerbechet Hamlet, Koror, Palau.

Katherine Gravett ’09

K David James Williams ‘64

Charles P. Brumder ’72 SBA

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James M. Burns II ’75

harles P. Brumder ’72 SBA, beloved Charlie passed away peacefully at home in Charles P. Brumder ‘72 2014, surrounded by his wife Katie and family. He was “Bumpa” to his grandchildren. A true family man, Charlie’s life was dedicated to community and bringing people together. He was a passionate philanthropist, committed to supporting University Lake School, Tall Pines Land Conservancy and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. He was

atherine Gravett ’09, former resident of Fremont, CA, passed away on July 2, 2015. Katie was an avid soccer player and loved all that life had to offer. She graduated from Mission San Jose High School in 2003 and Menlo College in 2009.

Gerhard C. Umbreit

Katherine Gravett ‘09

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erhard C. Umbreit, married to Margaret Umbreit, was the brother-in-law of “Judge” John D. Russell (Judge Russell).

Gerhard C. “Gerry” Umbreit was born on July 4, 1924, in Manila, Philippines, and passed away on Feb. 14, 2014 in Prescott, Ariz.

Gerry came to the U.S. in 1936 and attended Menlo School and graduated from Stanford University. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he married his beloved wife of 64 years, Margaret, in 1949.

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ATHLETICS

343 Gift-Filled Shoeboxes to Operation Christmas Child

by Aaron Gillespie Sports Information Director

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enlo College Athletics got into the giving spirit once again this holiday season and made a huge impact in the process. Coaches, staff, student-athletes from 15 varsity teams and an on-campus club, Menlo REACH, joined together to donate an impressive 343 gift-filled shoe boxes to Operation Christmas Child.

Operation Christmas Child is an initiative

by Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1993, Samaritan’s Purse has collected and delivered more than 113 million gift-filled shoe boxes to children in over 150 countries through Operation Christmas Child.

“This has been a tradition for many years in my family, “said GSAC Commissioner Mike Daniels. “I was happy to bring this venture to the conference and have so many athletes take part. I was able to see some of the personal notes written by our student-athletes to these kids and it reminds me of why we do what we do.”

2015 marked the second year that Menlo’s new conference, the Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC), has encouraged schools to take part in a friendly contest to see which department could donate the most shoe boxes.

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In its first year in the conference, Menlo donated 343 boxes, 43 more than the entire conference donated the prior year.

Servant leadership is front and center in the department’s mission statement and this initiative provided a great opportunity to put that on full display.

“Operation Christmas Child was the perfect opportunity to serve our department’s mission of creating servant leaders while helping those in need around the world,” said Director of Athletics Keith Spataro. “I’m proud of the way our student-athletes, coaches and staff joined together to make such a huge impact on the lives of so many this holiday season.”

In total, GSAC schools packed over 500 gift-filled shoe boxes that will be delivered to needy children around the world.

Teams worked together to gather toys, school supplies, hygiene items, and notes of encouragement.

Five-Star Champions of Character for Sixth Consecutive Year

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enlo College Athletics was recently honored as a Five-Star NAIA Champions of Character Institution for the sixth consecutive year and, for the first time ever, was one of 29 institutions in the nation to earn top billing as a Gold Institution.

The Champions of Character scorecard measures commitment in five key areas, and has a possible 100 points. There are three levels that are awarded: Gold (90-100 points), Silver (75-89 points) and Bronze (60-74).

Menlo College Athletics earned 92 of the 100 possible points, to claim honors as the only Gold institution within the Golden State Athletic Conference.

Above and left, Students with gift-filled shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.

PHOTOS: KATIE CALIENDO/MENLO ATHLETICS

ATHLETICS

Live Band, Dancing, Casino Games and a Poker Tournament!

The Menlo College Athletics Department will host its annual spring fundraiser in an inaugural "Vegas Night" on Saturday evening, April 9th in the Menlo College Dining Hall. There will be food, drinks, a live band, dancing, and the main attraction - casino games and a poker tournament. All proceeds from the event will be used to directly enhance the student-athlete experience here at Menlo College.

For more information and to register to attend, please visit:

menloathletics.com/f/VegasNight.php

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ATHLETICS

Donnenwirth Honored

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enlo College Women’s Basketball alum (’15) Laurel Donnenwirth did it all for the Oaks during her four seasons on the floor. She was twice named an NAIA All-American, was a two-time California Pacific Conference (Cal Pac) Defender of the Year and was the Cal Pac Player of the year following her senior season in 2015. In addition, she was named an All-Cal Pac performer each of the four seasons of her illustrious career and helped Menlo to four consecutive regular season conference titles and four-straight trips to the NAIA National Championships. Donnenwirth concluded her career ranked in the top five of 11 different career categories and is the College’s all-time leader in rebounds (1,166) and games played (119).

Donnenwirth was honored by the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn. as one of just over a hundred players to have their jersey displayed in the “Ring of Honor”. The Ring of Honor is located in the North Rotunda of the Hall of Fame and represents some of the nation’s finest basketball players. The current collection represents both high school Gatorade State Player of the Year and collegiate All-Americans from the 2014-15 season. Donnenwirth is the first Oak to have her jersey on display in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Hall of Fame Class of 2015: Back Row, Justin Trott, John Rooke, and Gabe Amey. Front Row, Amanda Colon, Kepua Lee, and Christa Hewett Ohia.

Menlo College Athletics 2015 Hall of Fame Class

by Sports Information Director Aaron Gillespie

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enlo College Athletics held an induction ceremony for the 2015 Hall of Fame class on Friday, October 16th in conjunction with OAKtoberFest weekend. Six Menlo greats were enshrined into the Hall of Fame for their on and off court accomplishments and commitment to Menlo College Athletics.

Justin Trott Men’s Basketball 1999-2003 Justin Trott helped the Oaks to a pair of conference titles and still holds a spot in the top 10 in six different career categories in the Menlo record books. Trott remained at Menlo as an assistant coach for six seasons following graduation.

Kepua Lee Women’s Basketball 2004-08 In four seasons Kepua Lee helped Menlo to a pair of conference titles, was the Cal Pac Freshman of the Year and was twice named an NAIA All-American. She is still first in Menlo history in career points and points per game and is in the top 10 in 10 different categories.

Amanda Colon Softball 2002-05 In four years, Amanda Colon helped the Oaks to 72 total team wins and launched an assault on the record book in the

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process. She still sits in the top 10 in nine different career categories including first in total hits and home runs.

Christa Hewett Ohia Volleyball 2004-08 Christa Hewett Ohia helped Menlo to a 70-30 overall record and 54-5 mark in conference play in four seasons. The Oaks won three consecutive conference titles with Hewett Ohia playing libero. She was named Cal Pac Libero of the Year three times and is still first in Menlo history in career digs.

Gabe Amey Football 1997-2000 Amey was one of the most prolific wide receivers in Menlo history. He finished his career with 2,987 receiving yards, 200 receptions and 18 touchdowns and went on to play five seasons of professional football in the Arena Football League.

John Rooke Men’s Soccer 1980-86 John Rooke played for legendary head coach Carlos López as a goalkeeper and helped the team to over 80 wins during his time as an Oak. Rooke was an AllAmerican and all-conference performer who had one of the lowest goals against average of any keeper in the conference.

ATHLETICS

Intern Brian Brownfield ’16 Receives Oakland A’s Bill King Memorial Scholarship The pregame ceremony took place on field prior to the A’s Sept. 8 game against the Houston Astros. Brownfield had the chance to meet with current A’s broadcasters Ray Fosse and Ken Korach and following the check presentation, Fosse invited Brownfield up to the booth to observe the pros at work. On top of all that, the A’s earned a 4-0 lead over the division leading Astros.

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f you have ever tuned in to a Menlo College Athletics web stream, it is likely you have heard an enthusiastic “In the Net” or “Get outta here baseball,” the signature calls of junior student-broadcaster Brian Brownfield ’16. Brownfield, a native of Salinas, Calif., has been an asset to Menlo’s Sports Information Department since stepping foot on campus as a freshman in 2013 and has put his stamp on over 100 broadcasts in 2+ years.

The hard work he’s put in to honing his craft recently paid off, quite literally, when he was honored by the Oakland A’s as the annual Bill King Memorial Scholarship Recipient. The scholarship, given to an aspiring Bay Area student-broadcaster, is given in honor of the legendary voice of the Oakland A’s for 25 seasons, Bill King who is famous for his exclamatory phrase “Holy Toledo.”

“The smile still cannot be wiped off my face when I think about the ceremony and meeting the broadcasters,” noted Brownfield. “Ken Korach, Ray Fosse and Vince Cotroneo were all cordial and willing to give me advice or helpful hints to get my career launched and I’m forever grateful for that opportunity.” the action is something I always admired. Just to have my name in the same sentence as his is such an honor and a blessing.”

“Brian’s commitment to the athletics department has been highly impactful,” noted Sports Information Director Aaron Gillespie. “From day one he has been passionate and driven about a career in broadcasting and has taken a professional approach to each and every call.

He’s more than deserving of this scholarship and I couldn’t be more proud of his accomplishments thus far.”

With the $3,500 scholarship from the A’s Community Fund, Brownfield has the potential of an internship within the broadcasting department. While the future looks bright for Brownfield, he was quick to note that none of this would be possible if it weren’t for Menlo College.

“Getting the opportunity to work with Menlo Athletics and broadcast a variety of sports has given me such a valuable experience, and I’m truly grateful for the chance because it doesn’t come around every day. If it weren’t for Menlo, I wouldn’t be on this path.”

As a lifelong fan of the Oakland A’s and admirer of King’s work on the microphone, the honor could not have been more perfect, according to Brownfield.

“Bill King was one of the best radio broadcasters of our time, so to be awarded with a scholarship in his name is pretty exciting. His professionalism, knowledge, and passion for bringing fans

Top, aspiring Menlo College student-broadcaster Brian Brownfield is presented a Bill King Memorial scholarhip, and bottom, Sports Information Director Aaron Gillespie with Brian at a baseball game.

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ATHLETICS

Matt Lisle Named Menlo College Softball Head Coach

Softball Head Coach Matt Lisle

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enlo College Director of Athletics Keith Spataro announced Matt Lisle as the ninth head coach in Menlo College softball history. Lisle, a Concord, Calif. native, brings a wealth of experience as an assistant coach, hitting instructor and scout with him to Menlo College and comes to the Oaks after serving as an assistant coach at Santa Clara University in 2014-15.

“I’m thrilled that Matt is on board and excited about what he brings to the department and the softball program,” said Spataro. “Matt stood out in the interview process through his preparation and clear knowledge and passion for the game along with his understanding of who we are as a College and Athletics Department.”

He was named the 2007 Bay Shore Athletic League (BSAL) Coach of the Year as the head coach at Saint Mary’s High School located in Berkeley, Calif. That squad posted the best record (23-1) and highest state ranking (second) in the school’s 100-plus year history.

Prior to his stop at CSUEB, Lisle worked with hitters and catchers at the University of Oregon as a member of the coaching staff that helped lead the Ducks to their first ever Pac-12 Conference title.

“It is truly an honor to be the newest member of the athletic department at Menlo College,” said Lisle. “I’ve coached at every level from High School to NAIA to NCAA Div. I and feel the most at home at Menlo. Athletic Director Keith Spataro, Vice President Steven Weiner and all the staff and players have been beyond welcoming in this process, and my family and I are really excited about being members of the Oak family.”

Lisle came to the University of Oregon after spending 14 years coaching collegiate and high school baseball. His previous stops include two years as the head baseball coach at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, Calif. Lisle was named the 2012 Diablo Valley Athletic League (DVAL) Coach of the Year after his team went 11-1 in conference play. That season the Falcons advanced to the North Coast Section semifinals and finished the season ranked ninth in the state.

Lisle was named the head coach for Gallaudet University baseball in Washington, D.C. in 2008, a position he would hold for two seasons.

Lisle spent a year as Associate Head Baseball Coach at Patten University in 2006 after a four-year run from 2002-05 as the head baseball coach at Berean Christian High School in Walnut Creek, Calif. At BCHS he compiled an overall record of 58-28 and led the team to its first-ever No. 1 state ranking.

In addition to his coaching resume, Lisle is a highly-respected hitting consultant to a number of professional baseball and softball players through his website www.coachlisle.com and also serves as an associate scout for the Detroit Tigers.

Lisle earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Organizational Management from Patten University in 2006. He and his wife Jessica have four children: Alicia, Chappie, Chase and Presley and reside in Martinez, Calif.

PHOTO: OAKSSPORTS.COM

In his first season as Assistant Softball Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Santa Clara, Lisle helped to improve the team’s batting average significantly,

raising it to its second highest mark in school history (.255) and helped lead the squad to its most wins in the previous 10 seasons (15). Prior to his work at Santa Clara, Lisle was the hitting and catching coach at Cal State University – East Bay where he helped lead an offensive turnaround that saw the Pioneer bats go from seven home runs in 2013 to leading the California Collegiate Athletic Conference with 48 in 2014. The Pioneers were also second in the CCAA in conference SLG% at .455 and RBI with 156. The Pioneers finished the season ranked No. 36 in the NCAA in home runs per game as well.

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Artist: Laurie Szujewska, Title: Totem 8, Her Majesty, Year: 2010, Medium: letterpress monoprint, oil on paper

is an exhibition of five artists organized by the Menlo College Art Committee. The artists were chosen from the large group of artists who contributed to the 2014 Menlo College exhibition “85 Years 85 Artists.” The artists are Olaitan Callender-Scott, Karen Chew, Peter Foley, Gale Kiniry, and Laurie Szujewska. The title Flat Worlds plays with at least a couple of notions related to art making and culture: one can be the consideration of the two-dimensional nature of a painting—even when depth is depicted, everything happens on the surface. The exhibit is on display during the spring semester of 2016. The opening reception is February 18, 5-7 p.m.

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ver the past several years, the Menlo College Art Committee has invited plein air painters to come paint our lovely campus. OAKtoberFest, held on Saturday, October 17, seemed like the perfect opportunity to welcome local community painters to take part in the festivities. Six painters scouted out their favorite spots on campus and took part in the event, painting and displaying some of their previous plein air works, as well as talking with attendees who were curious about how plein air painting is done. The work that was done that day (some of it pictured here) is on display in the Menlo College Administration Building.

Top, by Jennifer Jastrab, middle,

by Caroline Garbrino, bottom left to right, by Stefanie Sylvester, Eric Greenhut, and Karen Olsen.

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The Brawner Clocktower by Mark Monsarrat, 2015

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THE BEST LIVING EXPERIENCE

Students Speak to the Benefits of Living on the Menlo Campus I like how every building on campus takes less than a 3 minute walk.

Anthony Pitini My neighbors are super nice. RAs are wonderful.

Peiyao Shen I love how close I’ve gotten with my hallmates over the years.

Ashley Ayala Living on campus makes me feel more connected to the Menlo community. Plus, a two minute walk to class is not so bad.

Andres Camarillo Living on campus is convenient to get to class.

Andrew Hernandez Living on campus has allowed me to put my education and social life before having to worry about cooking or commuting.

Kai Moreno Living on campus means there is never nothing to do! My friends are down the hall and the campus provides many different activities. Plus you can get to classes in minutes!

Marissa DeOrona Living on campus is fun because you can walk out of your room at any time and find a fun event or people to hang out with! It’s also very convenient for classes and sports.

Mary Hall

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Living on campus opens so many opportunities for you because the school is strong on putting on events for students and you can really feel it.

Braxton Liddell My favorite part of living on campus is seeing all my peers and community members as soon as I open my door. I love immediately feeling like a part of the Menlo family.

Katie Lathrop My favorite part of living on campus is being able to be a part of the Menlo College community, a group of people all committed to bettering themselves and making an impact.

Garrett Spangler

Living on campus has made me more involved in the community. Being close to my classrooms and professors has allowed me to get the most out of my education here.

Kyle Lubke Living on campus is the best decision I’ve made. I have met so many friends and they all live basically next door to me! Everything I need is within walking distance.

Marlana Pierson Living on campus was new to me last year because I was a transfer student. It has been fun living on campus.

Emma Aklilu

Non Profit Org US Postage PAID Denver, CO Permit No 3280 MENLO COLLEGE 1000 El Camino Real Atherton, CA, 94027-4301 www.menlo.edu

Our Resident Assistants (top left to right) Anthony Pitini ’16, Garrett Spangler ’16, Mary Hall ’16, Devin Gaines ’16, and (bottom left to right) Kalea Gabriel ’18, Katie Lathrop ’16, Maya Mogensen ’18 and Regina Hernandez ’17 welcome you to Menlo College.