This was the meeting you shouldn't have missed! It's great to have all the scholarship winners, families, counselors, and a big bunch of our UCB Circle Kers joining in the festivities.
Pres Denise opened the meeting and got us thru the Song (Frank) and Invocation (Roberta), welcomed everyone, and turned it over to MC for the Day, Scholarship Chair (and Pres. Elect and Foundation Board Director, etc., etc.) Tamara Paradis. And, boy was she prepared. Maybe a bit sleepy, but PREPARED! And we were off and running. She never did eat her lunch!!
After a short review of our scholarship program, Tamara invited John P. to give his "speal" on where the Foundation came from and why. That doesn't change over the years, but the visiting audience does, so maybe it's worthwhile! JP was (for him) reasonably short and ended with the note that donations are always appreciated.
Then we were off on a trip thru introductions and awards to the winners. Just to mix things up, Tammy had asked 7 members of the Scholarship Committee each to "host" one of the awardees and their family members and counselors who were present. Her order of selection was alphabetical by first name (nickname) of the host – no favorites that way!
The recipients all expressed appreciation for the recognition and in turn recognized their family members and Counselors for their support.
Bill K'Berg of Albany/El Cerrito was first up and=2 0introduced Kiana Ward of El Cerrito High. Kiana reported that she had tried "early application" at Brown University and it worked – she was accepted. She was most appreciative of our scholarship; she had received several but ours was the most generous. Her current plans are to major in International Relations.
Debra was next and introduced David (Dah-Veed`) Trejo who is graduating from Albany High and also planning to attend Brown University (now that he has a scholarship and the school has coughed up more support!). David reported that he wants to major in Computer Science, start his own business and perhaps his "own country" and knows he has lots of work ahead of him!
President Denise was selected to re-introduce Arianna Deisman. Re-introduce because Arianna was an active Key Clubber at Berkeley High and President these last two years so we've all
seen her on more than one occasion (and given up $$$ at the Key Club "take-over" of our meetings). She is planning to be active in Circle K at the University of Washington, Seattle, where she will study Linguistics as an entry to International Relations.
Foundation President Duane Leonard was privileged to introduce Jennifer Kuang of El Cerrito High School. Jennifer has chosen to attend (ahem) Stanford (sorry about the Booooos!). She is the first generation of her family to attend college. I didn't note a proposed major but her goal is to enter community service, perhaps working for nonprofit organizations that benefit children.
Secretary Jack introduced Janie Gu of Albany High School. Janie will be attending UCB (cheers of "Go Bears") and claims to be undeclared, but leaning toward Business or Science. That sou nded like an impossible pairing, Reviewing her transcript, though, she could certainly do just that – double major in a science and business.
Jeff was next and as he moved up to the front didn't even notice that his honoree, Keng Lam, was close on his heels, so Jeff got a lot of laughs when he opened by asked Keng (who was standing behind him) to come forward. Keng's Chinese family moved to the Dominican Republic where he grew to 13 and thence to Albany where he is graduating. He will attend UCB (more cheers) and his plans are to study in the Public Health field.
Phinally, Phuoc was called upon to introduce Robert Luan of Berkeley High. Robert is also entering UCB (still more cheers) and it looks like the UCB Circle K will get 3 new members from the way the current members swamped the soon-to-be frosh (Note I did not call them freshmen!). Robert's note that he plans to "do" engineering (undefined) brought groans from many of the attendees. =2 0Later, Roberta noted that there were at least three successful UCB Engineering grads in the audience.
And there you have our 7 scholarship winners for 2009. There were congrats all around to them and their families and special thanks to their counselors who were present to enjoy the fruits of their efforts.
There were a few short announcements. JP a "heads up" for a work party to move "stuff" from one building to another at Longfellow on June 6; VC planning a RIF distribution towards the end of May; Bettye H$ for our other work in Community Service; Frank for the YPSO Pops Concert coming up June 7; and VC for 4 more applications from graduating Circle K members to join our infamous Kiwanis Club. Frank also noted that he has only 1 program lined up for June and would appreciate any suggestions; he wants to follow the theme "inventions".
If you missed today, sorry – but this time you WERE NOT MISSED – we had too much fun=2 0recognizing the great kids who make us realize that in our "golden years" we will be in good hands.
jp
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