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CELEBRATING ALUMNI AUTHORS
Celebrating Lancer Authors
Angeline Truong ’17
Champion of Stories and Health Equity Author After the Rain
Angeline Truong never expected to publish a book, let alone see her name listed on the Amazon Bestsellers list for Asian-American literature next to authors she admires. Her debut novel, After the Rain, published in December 2020, is a coming-of-age story that follows Lily, a Vietnamese girl from a refugee family, from childhood through college as she tries to understand her identity and her relationship to her family.
“I wanted to write a novel that gave kids heroines who are people of color, who have families that remind them of their own families,” Angeline says. Themes of motherhood, family and the refugee experience often are represented in her writing, and Angeline’s personal family history as Vietnamese refugees has deeply influenced her work and other pursuits.
This spring, Angeline graduates from Stanford University, with a concurrent bachelor’s in human biology, concentrating on the social and cultural determinants of mental health, and a master’s in community health and prevention research. She hopes to attend medical school and follow her interests in communitybased research and access to culturally competent health care. Eventually, she would like to combine her experience as a doctor and a writer to treat patients.
Her next project — a partnership with the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma — is combining her passions as she collects the stories of births, marriages, children and life as told by women who escaped from the Khmer Rouge for her next book. She’s also gathering the stories of how the pandemic has affected the care and treatment of torture survivors to create a caretaker’s guide for future pandemics and crises.
“I want to use storytelling and patient-focused narratives to inform healing from trauma in a culturally informed way,” she says. “I think it’s a very different and innovative framework for treating traumatized people and refugees.”
Angeline’s holistic approach to medicine parallels the interdisciplinary education she received at Saint Francis. Swimming varsity for four years taught her discipline, and biology and chemistry classes with teachers Linda Segal and Jennifer Thomas laid the foundation for her interest in science. She remembers specific passages discussed in AP English Language with Meighan Wilson Friedsam ’97 and continues to exchange book recommendations with Len Christensen, her AP English Literature teacher. It was an emotional reading of her original poem in Anthony Kunkel’s Creative Writing class, though, that emboldened her as a writer: “Writing is inherently a confessional practice. You’re writing love letters to your community, to your family, to strangers, and you’re baring your soul for everyone to see. That is terrifying.”
By working to improve medical care for those who are vulnerable, she hopes that her storytelling will help her serve a community that is dear to her heart. “I saw that there was a space [of unwritten stories] that I wanted to break into, and I just did it,” she said. “It was empowering to know that I could do something like that, and I feel like I can do similar things in other arenas.”
Amanda Tyler ’91
Co-Author with the Hon. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union Shannon Cecil Turner Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law
The opportunity and inspiration of a lifetime came calling for Amanda Tyler following her graduation from Harvard Law School. From 1999 to 2000, she clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Before joining the Berkeley Law faculty in 2012, Amanda taught at George Washington University Law School and was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, New York University School of Law and University of Virginia School of Law.
“Over the years, at my invitation, the justice would visit the law schools where I taught to talk to my students,” Amanda says. Reflecting their relationship and Justice Ginsburg’s welcoming personality, these were conversations between the two held before a rapt audience.
The last of Justice Ginsburg’s two Berkeley visits was in October 2019 for the inaugural Herma Hill Kay Memorial Lecture. This conversation is the basis for the recently published Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union, completed just prior to Justice Ginsburg’s death in September 2020.
“I am immensely grateful that I had the chance to interview her and then visit her during an overnight trip to Washington, D.C., in January 2020” — the last time she saw Justice Ginsburg before the pandemic curtailed travel. “She was a spectacular writer and a teacher at heart. I would send her triple-spaced drafts of portions of the book that came back completely covered in pencil edits, just like my drafts 20 years ago for her.”
The book covers the measure of Justice Ginsburg’s career and favorite opinions, as well as her candid thoughts about her life, marriage, and her and her husband Marty’s battles with cancer. The title was inspired by Deuteronomy 16:20, one of the Torah’s central declarations and one of Justice Ginsburg’s core ideals.
“She was an incredibly kind and caring person,” says Amanda, who also wrote Habeas Corpus in Wartime: From the Tower of London to Guantanamo Bay (2017). When a former Ginsburg law clerk had a child, Justice Ginsburg sent a gift of her own design: a baby T-shirt emblazoned with “RBG Grandclerk.” Amanda cherishes the T-shirts she received when her children were born.
With the book’s publication, Justice Ginsburg was able to celebrate the life’s work of another friend: Herma Hill Kay, Berkeley law professor and former dean, pioneer in the fight against sex-based discrimination and, at the time of Hill Kay’s death in 2017, author of an unpublished manuscript on the first female law professors in the U.S. “No publisher would take it, until the justice offered the books as a two-fer,” Amanda recalls.
“Justice Ginsburg had a superhuman drive to contribute and to try to make the world a better place,” Amanda reflects. “That very much dovetails with what I was taught at Saint Francis.” Amanda was a highly competitive soccer player and cross country runner at Saint Francis. At Stanford, she played on the university soccer team and through the Stanford in Washington Program worked at the United States Department of Justice.
“As her clerks, we knew how amazing she was, but the rest of the world didn’t,” Amanda adds. “Now the world does.”
“One of my favorite shows is ‘Into the Woods.’ I played the baker in Starting Arts in San Jose’s virtual production this March. I love the plot and music. [Stephen] Sondheim is very tricky to learn, but it gives all the fairy tales we know a grown-up lens.”
ASB as Harry Potter characters (from left): Valentina Paredes ’21, Shyna Ballal ’21, Sydney Dunne ’21, Nick Weitzel ’21, Maria Serrano ’21, Jack Whitlow ’21 Halloween Photo
“I am one of six elected seniors on the Associated Student Body [ASB] and was on Student Council as a sophomore and junior. ASB plans school events like our Haunted Halloween Drive-Through and has created announcement videos to post on @sflancerland. I love being the voice of my peers and carrying out events that make them feel welcomed.”
WHAT’S IN MY Remote Learning Space?
Since his first role in the San Jose Children’s Musical Theater production of “Seussical,” Jack Whitlow ’21 has been a fixture in regional theater and on the Saint Francis stage. This spring, Jack was selected to direct “Bright Star Concert Version” by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell — the school’s first-ever virtual student-run musical. He plans to major in theater education. (At left he is pictured in Saint Francis’ 2020 spring musical “Mamma Mia!,” which was canceled due to the pandemic.)
Zoom Cast Photo
“We’re doing everything virtually for the 2021 winter student-directed musical from staging to singing. I have a wonderful team of seniors helping me with artistic and technological issues like slow Wi-Fi and not having enough space remotely to dance. Doing a virtual musical is certainly unique, but I’m learning a lot. The arts are still something you can do virtually and are a huge outlet of joy and happiness right now.”
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
“This is my favorite book that we’ve read in Culture and Voice with Mrs. Yang this year. We’re reading books by authors who are underrepresented and marginalized. I love looking at life through different perspectives and getting the chance to move outside my comfort zone.”
Angel on my Desk
“Mrs. Mary Jo Carroll gave me this angel when I was a sophomore for helping her design costumes for the shows. She teaches Religious Studies and is the staff person for costumes. I was trying to find a way to be involved with theater beyond the stage, and a friend suggested I be an assistant costume designer. We created a bond, and I keep this angel on my desk.”
Service and Faith
For fall 2019 and winter 2020, many socially distant activities were held on campus including class Masses held in the Quad.
Student-Led Community Outreach
As individuals, clubs, teams or classes, students continue to embrace the ideals of service to others. The depth and breadth of community outreach projects directly support those hardest hit by the pandemic in the Bay Area.
In the fall, parents and students took part in the Family Day of Service, organized by parent Michele Barnett Gaskill and benefiting Hope’s Corner, which offers free breakfast and a bag lunch to those facing food insecurity. Participants decorated grocery bags that later were distributed with food to homeless and low-income families in the community. In the fall, students organized a hygiene drive for San Jose’s Sacred Heart Community Services, collecting travel-size shampoo, body wash, lotion, toothpaste and floss. In December, Buon Appetito, the new Italian cooking club formed last fall and led by junior Miriam Gemelli, served home-cooked Italian meals to immigrant families of Lantern, a San Francisco nonprofit. The club coordinated meal delivery with the Columbia Association and the Associazione Nazionale Carabinieri, two nonprofit organizations that celebrate Italian heritage. Miriam and her family also delivered meals to 10 families themselves: “Seeing the smiles on the families’ faces upon handing them our gifts was a heartwarming experience,” she said.
Juniors Rohan Rao, Shlok Shah, Mihir Mathur and Krishna Mani organized a fall 2020 jazz concert for elderly residents who live in their neighborhood. Since the seniors are isolated, the students decided to take the show to them, setting up the concert in front of their house in a safe, socially distanced manner. The student musicians created their own set list and met for multiple practice sessions held outdoors.
