Class Notes

Collazo is the chairman and CEO of MARSYS, a private company that specializes in providing IT-services. He has very broad experience in developing high technology for domestic and international corporations. MARSYS has been hugely successful in their digital media platforms for companies such as Coca-Cola.

Roche has owned R. T. Roche & Associates, a real estate appraisal business, for over 30 years. He received a business degree from NDNU through the evening completion program in 1982. Roche also holds an associates degree from Foothill College. He and his wife Susan established an endowed scholarship fund to provide more students with the opportunity to receive an NDNU education.

Desautels, president of Desautels Company in San Francisco, has previously served as chair of the board and returns to the board after a year's absence. He has been a board member for the past 20 years, Destautels is also a former president of Polaris Aircraft Leasing. Although retired from Desautels Company for the past 15 years, he is still a principal of the company.

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Audubon Elementary students and families generously donated over $4,100 to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with its first-ever, Pennies for Patients campaign. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world's largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancer. In December, a representative attended a student council meeting to introduce the campaign and encouraged the students to begin collecting the first week of January.

Lead by Audubon fifth grade teacher Dawn Tesarowski, the school kicked off the New Year with fifth grade students generating enthusiasm for the cause by preparing and presenting short skits for the kickoff assemblies, and by writing and broad-casting daily announcements. Students collected loose change over the course of three weeks, adding up the totals each week. Student council representatives reminded students to bring in their donations and they turned in their classroom boxes weekly. Each Monday morning, the previous week's collection was announced and posters around the school kept everyone informed about the running total. Classroom teachers took advantage of the money-collecting activity to enhance math lessons on money, counting and estimating.

At the end of three weeks, the student council was excited to announce that the school collected over $4,100. Honorable mentions go to Mr. Aberg's fourth graders for bringing in over $500 and to Mrs. Beaty's second graders for donating over $300.

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Twenty-eight Sequoia Union High School District students (from Carlmont, Sequoia and Woodside high schools) have just returned home from Sojourn to the Past, a 10-day civil rights trip to the Deep South. Students met Congressman John Lewis, Minnijean Brown Trickey (one of the Little Rock Nine), Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and many other movement leaders. The Sojourn blog (http://www.sojournproject.com/bloghome/) features posts by district students, and some of them were interviewed by local media too.