N o t re Dame de Namur University M AG A Z I N E I Summer 2007V O L U M E 7 | N U M B E R 2

“I want to give something back . . .”Ruth Singleton

“I want to give something back . . .”Ruth Singleton

Letter from the President............2

Commencement ’07 ................3-5

Alumni News ..............................6

Student Life ................................7

Alumni & Family Weekend.....8-11

Class Notes..........................12-13

Faculty News ............................14

Staff News ................................15

C O N T E N T S

COVER – At 82 years young, Ruth Singleton graduated May 5 with a bachelorof science degree. NDNU’s School of Education and Leadership bestowed their Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award to Singleton, who despiteencountering racism, segregation, and hard times, always aspired to receivean education. For the next chapter in Ruth’s life story, see page 6.

NDNU Board of Trustees 2007Cressey Nakagawa, Esq., Chair

Don Carroll, Esq., Vice Chair

Sr. Ann Bernadette Barnes* ‘59

Marie Batton ‘37

Peter Brusati

Jeffrey Bullis ‘81

Sheila O’Connor Burns

Andrew Cresci

Connie Cummings

Marc Desautels

Tom Diridon

Margaret Duflock

John Ferrari

Frank Hannig

Anne Hannigan** ‘70, ‘72

Rich Huetteman

Sr. Donna Jurick, Ph.D.*

George Keller

Dorothy Kitt ‘56

Donald Langendorf

Sr. Mary Laxague* ‘58

Candida LoBue ’74

Victor LoBue Jr. ‘85

Carol Simsarian-Loughlin

John B. Oblak, Ph.D.

Mary Lou Putnam ‘79

Richard Roche ’82

William Spencer

Sr. Jean Stoner* ‘66, ‘72

Sr. Barbara Thiella* ‘64

Raymond Tolles II

Carla Repetto Webster ‘70, ‘71, ‘73

Kris Crowe Zavoli ‘68, ‘73

*Sister of Notre Dame de Namur

**SND Associate; SND Representative to the Board

L E T T E R F R O M T H E P R E S I D E N T

In this issue of NDNU Magazine we are featuring two very special activities that occur each year on our campus: Commencement andAlumni Reunion.

Many of you will remember commencement on the lawn in front of Ralston Hall or at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco. We movedit to campus in 2002 to accommodate all of our graduates in one cere-mony. On May 5, 2007, graduation ceremonies were held on KoretField, our newly resurfaced athletic field on Ralston Avenue. Keeping

with tradition, we honored our fifty-year graduates, the Class of 1957, and we presentedthe outstanding Alumni Community Service Award to a deserving recipient (story onpage 6). We also presented Donald Pippin, founder of San Francisco’s Pocket Opera, withan honorary doctorate degree, and we honored distinguished faculty members withteaching awards.

Most importantly, we graduated nearly 470 students, including both graduates andundergraduates. Among our graduates we also had a father and his son, and a mother andher daughter. NDNU really is about family!

It is impressive to see the ethnic, racial, and age diversity when I present degrees andcongratulations to the individual recipients. Our NDNU community works very hard to create this beautiful ceremony for those who have achieved their goals and for thosefamily members and friends who have supported them in doing so.

All of our 2007 graduates are now part of the NDNU alumni network. We welcomeyou as alumni and encourage you to continue to support Notre Dame de NamurUniversity.

This leads me to a second special activity taking place on campus on the weekend of September 28-30, 2007. Alumni & Family Weekend is a special venue for alumni tomingle with each other and with current students and their families. Special activities areplanned for everyone and, as you will see, we are inviting special classes back to celebratetogether. This is an ideal opportunity to see that the very best of CND is an integral partof NDNU; while our name changed, our mission remains centered on the mission of theSisters of Notre Dame de Namur. We hope you will join us for this special weekend andwe welcome your reading of this issue of NDNU Magazine.

John B. Oblak, Ph.D.President

PUBLISHERRichard Rossi

MANAGING EDITORKaren Plesur

ASSOCIATE EDITORLeslie Baikie-Khavari

COPY EDITOR Mary Beech

NDNU Magazine, Vo l . 7 , N o. 2

CLASS NOTESJanet Giannini ’00, ’04

PRODUCTIONJeanene Denegri-Nielsen

Jeanne GomezSt. Croix Press

SPECIAL THANKSto all who contributed

to this magazine.

2 N DN U I 2007

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C o m m e n c e m e n t 2 0 0 7

Former State Senator Jackie Speier Inspires Graduates

Former State Senator Jackie Speier spoke to approximately 450 graduating students from Notre Dame de NamurUniversity’s four schools on May 5.

The University celebrated its 155th commencement on Koret Field and hosted approximately 5,000 family members

and friends of graduates. Speier’s keynote speech, “What WouldYou Do If You Knew You Wouldn’t Fail?,” reflected upon her own

life and challenged students to strive for their personal best.

Speier’s dedication and passion as a public servant began almost 30 years ago as a young congressional staff person for Congressman Leo Ryan. She nearly lost her life in an attempt to uncover facts regarding the Reverend Jim Jones and his People’s Temple followers inGuyana. More than 900 people died that day, including CongressmanRyan. Speier was shot five times and left to die. She has said that whilewaiting nearly 22 hours for help to arrive she molded her life’s philos-ophy as well as her work, social, and civic engagement ethic.

Speier was termed out of the California State Senate in 2006. She served as assistant president pro tempore of the Senate during her last term. During the same year she ran in the Democratic primary for California’s lieutenant governor and lost by three percent of the vote to insurance commissioner John Garamendi.

“The mission of NDNU encompasses promoting a collaborativecommunity, social justice, and global peace,” said NDNU Provost andExecutive Vice President Judith Maxwell Greig when introducing her.“That’s why we are delighted and honored to have former state senatorJackie Speier, who embodies leadership, passion, and courage, as ourcommencement speaker.

“She has set an unprecedented record of over 300 pieces of legislation signed into law by both Democratic and Republican governors and authored ground-breaking legislation addressing privacy and consumer protection, child safety, child support enforce-ment, and health care,” continued Dr. Greig. “She will surely inspire our students to follow in her footsteps.”

Adorned in celebratory leis, Loselea Naufahu

addresses the under-graduate class of 2007.

Diana Gomez represents the graduate class of 2007.

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Marta Bookbinder ’97 receives the Julie Billiart Alumni Award for Outstanding Community Service.

NDNU President John “Jack” Oblak welcomes alums from the class of ’57. Featuredon the left, Linda Chapman Mandy, and on the right, Clara Mossi Morrissey.

President Oblak bestows an Honorary Degree, Doctorate of Humane Letters,on San Francisco arts icon and longtime NDNU supporter Donald Pippin.

Belmont mayor Coralin Feierbach presents Juan Carlos Vera and RubenMora-Roman, Jr. with the City of Belmont Student Community Service andLeadership Award.

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Dr. Stephen Cole (left) was presented with the Sister Catharine JulieCunningham Teaching Project Award and Dr. Ali Ferdowsi with theGeorge M. Keller Teaching Excellence Award.

Tino Guevara ’07 and Sam White ’07 both graduated with an MA in English.

Eno Ekong ’07 BA Sociology.

he name of the book will be “RuthieMae.” The new business enterprisewill be “Warm Spirit.” And along

the way she hopes to pick up a master ofpublic administration degree. Ambitiousgoals for a 22-year-old; for an 82-year-oldthey might seem impossible. But don’t betagainst Ruthie Mae Singleton. She’s been overcoming long odds all her life.

NDNU’s most celebrated 2007 gradu-ate is full of infectious enthusiasm as shetalks about the future. Though she’ll needsurgery soon to clear up the cataracts thatare forming in her right eye, her vision isvery clear.

“I want to give something back,” shesays. “And at the same time I want to dosomething to help women like those whohave been incarcerated and believe theyhave nothing to offer, to raise their self-esteem.”

The sharp business-woman in her refuses to let her divulge too

many details of her upcoming

business enterprise, except to say it involves marketing a product that she is familiarwith from her years in the cos-metology industry.

The women who will mar-ket the product for her are thevery ones she hopes to help,women who, like her, havetasted the downside of lifeand need a way to regain theirself-esteem and move on. “Ithink I can help coach womenlike that,” she says.

It would be easy to be skeptical about her chances of succeeding in such a venture. But consider, that ina life filled with giving of her-self for the benefit of others,Ruth Singleton also managed to open and successfully manage a chainof cosmetology salons and run a success-ful business that provided nurses to home-bound patients.

She lives alone now in a tidy mobile home park development tucked awayin a corner of Redwood City, just

a stone’s throw from San FranciscoBay, in a home that she helpeddesign. Her journey from rural Texas

in the 1930s, where she was told she couldn’t go to school beyond the seventhgrade, to center stage during NDNU’s

2007 commencement celebration in May,has been well documented in these pages and Bay Area newspapers and will be told again when she finishes her autobiography.

Along the way she fought segregationand racism at every turn, raised five chil-dren, mourned the death of one son andthree husbands, started and closed herbusinesses, helped hundreds of what wewould now call at-risk teens get a collegeeducation, took classes at numerous com-munity colleges (serving on various advi-sory boards for some of them), earned anAA degree from one, and finally found herway to NDNU where she majored in

human services and graduated on thesame day one of her granddaughters graduated from the University of Kansas.

She’s proud that her family is takingadvantage of the opportunity to get aneducation. “We have six baccalaureatesand two master’s degrees among us,” she says proudly.

Don’t bet there won’t be anothermaster’s added to that list very soon.

Ruthie Mae is coming back.

Ruthie Mae – The Next Chapter

A L U M N I N E W S

T

Sr. Roseanne Murphy (left), NDNU’s Executive Director of Planned Giving, and Janet Giannini ’00, ’04 (right),Director of Alumni Relations, join Ruth to celebrate heraccomplishments.

Ambitious goals for a 22-year-old; for an 82-year-old they might seemimpossible.

6 N DN U I 2007

Letters from Guadalajaraearly two hundred underprivilegedchildren from a poor parish neigh-borhood in the outskirts of

Guadalajara, Mexico, look forward totwo weeks every summer when arts andcrafts, music, and laughter fill their days.

Since 1999, NDNU’s GuadalajaraSummer Service Learning Project hasorganized and run a summer day campproviding arts and crafts, group activities,games, and basic English vocabulary forchildren between the ages of 6 and 12.Colorful finger puppets, word games,books, English, and music are the orderof the day as students’ lives are enrichedby activities and opportunities they normally wouldn’t be able to afford.

The project, sponsored by NDNU’sCenter for Spirituality and Social Change,Office for Campus Life, and RotaractClub, organized and co-directed by facul-ty members Dr. Bobby Vaughn (Sociology)and Ruth Zuca (Modern Languages) ispart of the University’s Service LearningProgram which provides students with anopportunity to learn through service.Students learn by doing and then reflectupon the experience in light of academicinput and classroom learning. Living withlocal families, the group experiences totalcultural immersion, personal challenge,and meaningful service.

NDNU students have been preparingfor the camp since early this year byraising funds, planning arts and craftsactivities and games for the children,learning how to teach the students,

and finally gatheringtogether all the needed materials.

“The program not only provides fun and educationalactivities for poorurban kids, it alsoprovides a movingexperience for theUniversity’s studentparticipants,” saidDr. Bobby Vaughn,NDNU’s Director ofthe Office of Missionand Diversity who is also AssociateProfessor ofSociology.

“In addition to dealing with the lin-guistic and cultural immersion of innercity Mexico, the students have to plantheir activities, control rambunctious lit-tle ones who are full of energy, evaluateand assess their own effectiveness asteachers, and constantly make adjust-ments over the two weeks,” he added.“Also, the reflections, discussions, andgroup exercises that we do while inMexico allow the participants to makesense of what they are observing and living every day – there is a lot of reallearning going on!”

Indeed, in the process of helping children realize their potential, NDNUstudents discover they get back more in return than they could ever give.

This summer’s visit willbe Dustin Waters’ first tripto Guadalajara. The 25-year-old, who plans toobtain his single-subjectteaching credential inAmerican history, looksforward to the culturalexchange and developinghis Spanish skills.

“When you’re fullyimmersed in the cultureand the language, I believeyou get something no bookcould ever teach you,”Waters said. “The learningexchange will definitelygo both ways. I’m lookingforward to opening the

children’s eyes to new opportunities andnew ways of learning.”

This year will mark the second trip toGuadalajara by Jocelyn Berl ’07. The liberalstudies major, Latin American studiesminor, credits the international exchangewith helping her define her life’s goals andimprove her study of Spanish.

“It was definitely the best experienceof my life,” said Berl, NDNU’s Guadalajarastudent coordinator. “I now know that I want to spend my life among Spanish-speaking people. I love the language, theculture, the people, and the food!”

Berl intends to return to graduateschool sometime soon to obtain a teach-ing credential to become an elementaryschool teacher with the hope of eventuallyowning her own school.

Her Spanish-speaking ability, whichBerl defines as intermediate at best whenshe arrived in Guadalajara, soared as shebecame immersed in the language. Shelived with a middle-class family that consisted of a 25-year-old woman and her father, aunt, uncle, and grandfather.The men raised animals and worked at a nearby farm. Lupe, the 25-year-old, rana business out of her garage, renting timeon five personal computers to local residents.

“I noticed that by the third day mySpanish was improving and by the end of the two weeks I could follow conver-sations pretty easily,” she said. “I evenstarted thinking and dreaming inSpanish.”

N

Jocelyn Berl ’07 and Dr. Bobby Vaughn discuss teaching strategies forthis year’s trip.

Lauren Hannigan ‘03 poses with students during a break between enrichmentactivities.

2 0 0 7 I N DN U 7

S T U D E N T L I F E

Look up a former professor or two.

Meet some current students and

compare “war stories.”

Stroll the same paths you

walked as a student.

Listen to some great jazz and be treated to some

entertaining talks. But mostly, just let yourself slip back

into the atmosphere of the Notre Dame campus.

“C O M E O N B A C K !”

Catch up with old friends

and reminisce a little.

IT’S ALL AVAILABLE DURING ALUMNI & FAMILY WEEKEND

SEPTEMBER 28 - 30

Register on line at www.ndnu.edu/alumni

28S E P T E M B E R

2-6 p.m. Registration and informationpacket pickup at RalstonHall Mansion

6 p.m. Welcome reception for all alumni, families, and students in Ralston HallMansion (Hosted by NDNU)

6 p.m. Class of ’67 Reunion recep-tion and Ralston Hall Tourled by docent SusanRowland. Reception after-ward in the Cipriani Room

8 p.m. Concert in Ralston HallMansion with jazz greatWesla Whitfield and MikeGreensill. Special appear-ances by NDNU voicestudents (Separate paidevent; see enclosed reg-istration form)

Wesla Whitfield

Legendary cabaret and jazz singer WeslaWhitfield’s performance on Friday evening is an event not to be missed. Long celebrated asone of the world’s greatest cabaret performers,Whitfield has amazed and enchanted audiencesfor more than 30 years.

With her husband Mike Greensill, who accom-panies on the piano, Whitfield connects with heraudience with her keen timing and ability to tella story through song.

Wesla Whitfield, with Greensill, teaches masterclasses in song styling and interpretation forNDNU’s Department of Music & Vocal Arts, andfor the summer Music Theater Conservatory.

“One of the finest masters of popular singing,Whitfield should be scrutinized by anyoneattempting to learn the subtleties of the vocal arts,and treasured by listeners who value beautifulmusic, beautifully done. Her voice is pure yet asmalleable as a jazz horn, and she uses it withmeticulous attention to detail. The result is superbjazz singing.”

The Los Angeles Times

Welcome Back to Campus

Tour, Explore, Learn!

Mary Chiorini Martinson ’67The Class of ’67 willcelebrate their 40threunion during Alumni& Family Weekend.Mary ChioriniMartinson ‘67, reunioncommittee member,has been busy makingpreparations. Thegroup will attend a Friday 6 p.m. receptionat Ralston Hall Mansionand host a special barbecue Saturdayat the pool near the Oaks. Martinson recallsgathering every Saturday with fellow studentsfor a steak dinner from SAGA, the University’sformer meal catering service. “We had such fun,”said Martinson, who is looking to re-live oldtimes. “We’re all planning on having a slumberparty at the hotel Saturday night.”

Kenneth Pizzi ’87Kenneth Pizzi ’87 islooking forward tocelebrating the 20thanniversary of his grad-uation from NDNU withformer classmates. Pizziis currently an assistantprofessor of English at College of San Mateoand account director for National Cinemediain San Jose. He was a

recruiter for CSM through a program funded bya federal grant. He even produced and hostedhis own television talk show on a local public-access channel in Palo Alto. He remembers hisyears on campus as “one of the best times of mylife. It provided me the opportunity to try newthings, like being editor of the Inkwell (The CNDnewspaper at the time),” he says. He has fondmemories of many of his teachers including Dr. Shirley Morrison, Dr. Joe Celloti, LeeCauble and Dr. Mary Ellen Boyling.

29S E P T E M B E R

10 a.m. Informal breakfast meet-ing for students, families,and alumni with NDNUPresident and Mrs. Oblak

11:30 a.m. Student-led campus tours.Meet at Tabard Inn

1 p.m. Founders’ Day Luncheon at Taube ConferenceCenter. Keynote Speaker Sr. Roseanne Murphy, SND,speaks about her newbook, The Life of SisterDorothy Stang, SND, Martyrof the Amazon (Separateevent; see registrationform)

1 p.m. Class of ’67 BBQ at theOaks (Separate event;see registration form)

4 p.m. Class of ’87 reunion reception. Location TBA

6 p.m. “Networking” BBQ andMicrobrew Tasting forgrad program alumni andincoming graduate stu-dent. Taube ConferenceCenter (Separate event;see registration form)

Alumni celebrating landmark reunions this year(including members of the classes of ’53-’57) will be invited, per tradition, to join with theirrespective class-mates to make a special Class Gift toward the NDNU Annual Fund. If you areinterested in assisting with this project, please contact Manuel Nungaray ‘02, ’05, Director ofAnnual Giving, at mnungaray@ndnu.edu.

Partly in anticipation of Alumni & Family Weekend, some members of the Class of ’56 met recently for lunch at Ralston Hall Mansion. Left to right: Kathleen O’Callaghan Micallef, AnitaGuidici Wolpman, Robin Boldenweck Greene, Ester Bugna, JoAnneHeinz Sinatra, Dorothy Dall Baumann, Mary Ann Loney, DorothyMatthews Kitt. Seated: Arlene Rosales Martin, Anne Gouailhardou.

30

The Tradition Continues

Marie Damrell Gallo’57

Every year members of CND classes of 1953through 1957 could count on an invitation toModesto, to the home of Marie Gallo ‘57 for anannual reunion. For 50 years she has been theglue that has held the class together and keptalive the spirit of Notre Dame. This year Marie’sparty will be held in Ralston Hall as part of theAlumni & Family Weekend.

“I truly believe the experiences and education I received at Notre Dame de Namur Universityprepared me for many of life’s challenges. Thefriendships made during those memorable years are very precious to me,” said Marie,who majored in English. She was the editor ofThe Belmontan student newspaper and served as senior class president.

S E P T E M B E R

10:30 a.m. Alumni & Family Mass atCunningham MemorialChapel

Noon Lunch at Ralston HallMansion for classes ’53thru ’57 (Separate event;see registration form)

12 N DN U I 2007

C L A S S N OT E S

Keep your fellow alums up-to-date! Send your news to the Alumni Office, Notre Dame

de Namur University, 1500 Ralston Ave., Belmont, CA 94002,or the Alumni Homepage at www.ndnu.edu. Please include

your name at the time of graduation, your graduation year, youroccupation and title, your work and home street addresses, and your

work and home e-mail addresses.

’54 Frances Herlihy Kump, BS Business, of Los

Altos, sponsored a performance on campus lastmonth of the Ensemble Eurydice. This interna-tional group of classical musicians includessoprano Carol Veit ’54, with whom Franceshas studied in Italy for the last few summers.Carol lives in Paris and teaches at the Rach-maninoff Institute there. Frances wished tointroduce the members of the EnsembleEurydice to NDNU and share their extra-ordinary talent with the community.

’56 Ester Bugna, BS Biology, continues to reside

in Menlo Park. Her activities include serving on the board of the Menlo Park HistoricalAssociation, gardening, writing haiku, andabove all, she reports, “smelling the roses” after working for NASA for 35 years.

’57Clara Mossi Morrissey, BA English, was hon-

ored at this year’s commencement ceremonieson the occasion of the 50th anniversary of hergraduation. She went on to teach in the SFUnified School District. For the past 30 yearsClara has served as a docent of the Fine ArtMuseum of San Francisco and recently com-pleted a 3-year term as co-chair of training newdocents. She is also a regular docent at the di Rosa Preserve: Art & Nature in Napa. Claratravels a great deal, paints, and tries “to enjoythe beauty of the moment.”

Linda Chapman Mandy, BS Pre-ProfessionalMedicine, also attended commencement cere-monies this May, accompanied by husbandMario. A student at Notre Dame High Schoolbefore coming to CND, Linda credits the Sisterswith helping her become a loving, sharing, giv-ing, caring, and spiritual person. Linda is proudthat she has just become an Associate of theSisters of Notre Dame. Longtime volunteers,Linda and Mario have five children and enjoyvolunteering in their granddaughter’s secondgrade class.

Norma Maun asks that we convey her congrat-ulations to fellow members of the Class of 1957on their 50th Anniversary!

’60 Diane Lovegrove Bader, BA Music, and

Barbara Frick Donnelly, BA History, CRESingle Subject Credential, traveled to Chinarecently. They were guests of Diane’s husbandJohn, who sings with the 100-member Sacra-mento Choral Society and Orchestra. The choirgave five concerts, including in Beijing, at the

Great Wall, and in Tianjin. In X’ian they weregreeted with a musical welcoming ceremonyand later spent the day at the site of the TerraCotta Warriors. Both Diane and Barbara weredelighted to have seen the former Maoist cul-ture accepting global investments and othersigns of modernity while maintaining the monuments of the past.

’66 Jan Orme Driscoll, BA Social Science, husband

Mike, Eileen Riley ’66, Vicki Broughton ’66and husband Phil, Marsha Keen ’66 and hus-band Bob participated in a wonderful NDNU-sponsored Alumni & Friends Wine Tour toPaso Robles this past March. The rest of theclass members were missed, but don’t worry;there’s another wine trip planned, this time to Sonoma, October 12-14. Save the date andlook for information on www.ndnu.edu/alumni.

’72Maureen Bundy Shaw, BA Sociology, now in

her 28th year of service at Catholic Charities of the Dicocese of Santa Rosa, recently received the Girl Scouts of Konocti Council’s Jewel of a Woman Award. As Executive Director ofCatholic Charities, Maureen coordinates theprovision of services that enhance the lives of over fifty thousand people annually in sixnorthern California counties.

’80Marie H. Davis, BA Political Science, is a

lecturer on Black American History for areaschools, churches, and organizations. Anaccomplished soloist, Marie has sung for veteran groups at Golden Gate Cemeteryfor the past 22 years.

Margaret McKenna Junker, BS Business, wasrecently promoted to Assistant Division Chiefof CalPERS Office of Audit Studies.

’86Kaia Eakin, BA English, joined Berkshire

Hathaway Holding Corp. (a Warren Buffet company) in San Francisco as legal counsel five years ago. Kaia works with local schoolsand corporations representing them in workers’compensation cases throughout Northern

California. She describes her job as requiring“detective-type skills.”

Nia Wooliscroft, BS Business, Economics andFinance, received her law degree from SantaClara University in May 2007. She sends bestwishes to all of the 2007 grads!

’87Carolene Hazelton Armer, BA English, is

Managing Partner with Armer & ArmerInvestments. A short story and poetry writer,Carolene is pursuing graduate work in creativewriting. She is also an avid tennis player.

’90Darrell Barbour, BA Sociology, hailed as one

of the Peninsula’s top boys’ basketball coaches,was recently named the new coach at SacredHeart Cathedral School. A point guard while a student here, he is credited with turningWoodside High into a perennial Peninsulapower over the last 12 years. During that time,his teams finished first or second in thePeninsula Athletic League ten times.

’92Dannica LaMantia, BA Psychology, is working

with abused children and victims of domesticviolence in a private practice in San Jose. Shereceived her master’s in counseling psychologyfrom Santa Clara University.

’93Joseph Wuelfing, BA Communications,

together with wife Janis, founded the MarkieFoundation in 1999 to honor their son Mark.Mark died at age four months from a severeneurological disorder. The foundation has raised money for children’s hospice programsin Northern California. To date, they haveraised more than $200,000, he reports.

’97 Marta Ines Bookbinder, MCP, was awarded

the Julie Billiart Alumni Award for OutstandingCommunity Service at this year’s commence-ment ceremonies. Marta is the community

Class Notes

2 0 0 7 I N DN U 13

C L A S S N OT E S

projects coordinator for the CommunityLearning Center in South San Francisco.Congratulations, Marta!

’99 Rebecca Garcia, CRE Multiple Subject, has

a new position as English Language Devel-opment Teacher for the Las Lomitas SchoolDistrict: To quote Rebecca, “I love it!”

’03Noreen Browning, CRE Multiple Subject,

will be the next principal of Notre DameElementary School, beginning August 2007.Noreen succeeds Sr. Dolores Quigg, SND, whohas served for the past 32 years.

Kathleen “Kat” Rose, BS Business, is the mar-keting coordinator for Scholastic Inc. in NewYork City. She works with conventions and

author events in Manhattan. She enjoyed see-ing President and Mrs. Oblak during a recentvisit which they made to New York this spring.

In MemoriamMarilyn Haley Bowe ’54Helen Coccary ’79Jerry Kreuger ’79Michael Smuin, father of Shane Smuin ’03

f you attended NDNU in the mid to late 80s, chances are you knew Maki

Nibayashi ’89. The popular history major was involved in everything from

the International Club to Programming Board to the Hawaiian Club. She

is now an NDNU Alumni Board member. NDNU Magazine caught up with

Nibayashi recently as her love for communication led her to become an

English interpreter in her homeland, Japan.

Q: What are some of your recent professional/personal accomplishments?

A: Well, after graduating, I went to Japan because my parents were there

and I wanted to improve my Japanese. I got a job teaching English to

Japanese students, working at a trading company. Then I moved to Hong

Kong for a year to teach English to Japanese students living there as expats.

I had a friend who was working in the sports department of one of the three

major newspapers in Japan (The Mainichi Newspapers, mainichi means daily)

and they were looking for an interpreter/translator for the Olympic Games in

Atlanta. Of course, I said ‘yes,’ and I guess that was the beginning of me

covering sporting events as an interpreter.

Since then, with the Mainichi, I’ve covered Atlanta, Nagano, Sydney, Athens,

and the Torino Olympics. I also work at many professional sporting events in

Japan, such as when an NFL team comes to Japan. Two NBA teams used to

come to Japan. Unfortunately, neither have events in Japan anymore, but they

were really interesting.

I’ve also worked in the editorial department for Metropolis Magazine in Tokyo,

a free weekly English magazine, letting the foreign population of Tokyo know

what was going on in the city. I met and interviewed really interesting people

including some actors and directors, such as Brett Ratner, the director of

“Rush Hour,” Paul Hogan “Crocodile Dundee,” and Robin Williams.

Right now, I work for several companies including Panasonic Design Company

where I help the designers and staff with presentation materials they have to

do in English. It’s a daily learning experience and a lot of fun.

Q: We heard you also cover baseball?

A: I’ve covered all of Major League Baseball’s spring training for 2002, 2003,

and 2004, and a little of 2006, going back and forth between Florida and

Arizona.

I would help do the interview, then translate the interview into Japanese either

during the game or back at the hotel. I don’t have a journalistic background

or a sports background, so I guess I’m just really lucky to have met the right

people who offered me these jobs.

Q: How did NDNU prepare you for

the “real” world?

A: NDNU was great in that it was

such a small community. I was

able to participate in many activi-

ties with different clubs and orga-

nizations, where maybe a really large university would not let me do so.

It gave me a lot of experience in dealing with people.

Q: What did you like most about NDNU?

A: I enjoyed the diversity of the student population. We had so many

different countries represented on campus, it was quite amazing. I also

liked the closeness of the faculty and students. Since it’s a small school,

basically everyone got to know everyone else.

Q: Would you like to share any anecdotes about a favorite teacher?

A: My favorite teacher was the one who made me change my major from

business to history. His name was Dr. Joe Celloti. Unfortunately, he passed

away the summer before my sophomore year. I only had him for a year but

the impression he left on me as a professor and a person was just so great.

He was funny, interesting, energetic, and just full of charisma. I was just

grateful that I was able to know him even for just that one year.

Q: What are some fond memories of the University?

A: I have many! I was an admission host for three years, beginning in my

sophomore year. My senior year, I was able to get a single dorm room in

case any prospective students wanted or needed to stay over, so that was

quite lucky!

I was also involved with the International Students Association. We spon-

sored the International Reception every year down at Ralston Ballroom. I

helped out with the Hawaiian Club, making leis every year, and helping with

preparation for the annual luau. I was on the tennis team for four years and

got to visit other campuses around the Bay Area.

My senior year, I was on the orientation staff committee and was the

Intramurals Coordinator, planning sports and game events, such as visits

to the ice skating rink, bowling tournaments, and the annual tennis tourna-

ment. It was all fun!

Maki Nibayashi ’89

Ed. Note: This is the first of a new series of informal conversations with NDNU graduates and other community members.

I

Conversations with...

C A M P U S N E W S

14 N DN U I 2007

wo NDNU professors recentlyreceived grants from the CarnegieFoundation Faculty Fellows

Program to develop community basedlearning courses that encourage studentpolitical engagement. Only 25 facultymembers from public and private univer-sities in California were chosen for thishonor.

Dr. Don Stannard-Friel, professor of sociology and anthropology, and Dr. Gretchen Wehrle, chair of thePsychology and Sociology Department,have been selected as Faculty Fellows

for the CaliforniaCampus Compact -Carnegie Founda-tion FacultyFellows: Service-Learning forPolitical Engage-ment Program. Theprogram is fundedin part by the Corp-oration for Nationaland Community

Service, Learnand Serve America.

As FacultyFellows, Dr.Stannard-Friel and Dr. Wehrle willbe working withother colleaguesfrom a wide varietyof disciplines overthe next two yearsto create, imple-

ment, and reflect on service learning inat least one of their courses with the goalof increasing students’ understanding,skills, and motivation for political partici-pation. They will also attend a three-dayinstitute at the Carnegie Foundation forthe Advancement of Teaching in Palo Alto,at the end of July.

In addition, seven Notre Dame deNamur faculty and staff members havebeen awarded mini-grants to developcourses in cooperation with communitypartners. The courses will be designed toallow NDNU students to apply the skills

and knowledge they are acquiring in theclassroom to including community needsidentified by the local agencies.

The projects range from teaching science to elementary school children, to applying liberation theology as a meansof working with marginalized persons.

TProfessors Receive Grants to Develop New Courses

ames Fogal didn’t miss a beat.

Even as he was just getting comfortable in his role as Director of

Graduate Programs for the School of Business and Management, he

stepped up and took over as the new Dean. He succeeds George Klemic, who

has accepted a position at Lewis University in Romeoville, IL.

“No one is more surprised at the way things have worked out than I am,”

said Dr. Fogal, who just a year ago joined the NDNU family as an associate

professor and director of the School’s graduate programs. “We made major

improvements in the graduate programs last year and I’m looking forward to

continuing to work on those areas as well as on the undergraduate programs

as Dean.”

One of those areas was the introduction of a new Geographic Information

Systems (GIS) course as part of the Masters of Public Administration program.

Students in the program used GIS to help local community planning for the

location of childcare centers among several other things.

“We’re going to try to integrate GIS into all

the School of Business and Management

programs, graduate and possibly even under-

graduate, in the coming years,” said Dr. Fogal,

for whom the GIS class is an example of what

he calls “applied teaching.”

“We have to combine theory with real world

application,” he said. “Our job is to prepare

our students to go out there and make a

difference.”

Prior to coming to NDNU, Dr. Fogal taught

undergraduate and graduate courses in Analytics and Information Systems,

Information Sciences and Technology, and Systems Integration for the

University of Phoenix. He also held senior management positions at Cisco

Systems, Exodus Communications, and UPS.

JD r. James Fogal

New Dean of NDNU School of Business and Management

NDNU MournsAdelaide Keller

delaide Keller, a prominent Peninsula civic leader whose activities included the founding

of the Women’s Recovery Associationand the Keller Center for FamilyViolence Intervention, passed awayJune 2, 2007 at age 84. She was thewife of longtime NDNU trusteeGeorge Keller of San Mateo. Mr.Keller has served over 25 years on theboard, including several as chairman.

Dr. Gretchen Wehrle

ADr. Don Stannard-Friel

S TA F F N E W S

nyone who’s spent any amount of time with SisterRoseanne Murphy, SND, knows she’s a great story-teller. Her long-awaited book to be released thisSeptember, Martyr of the Amazon: The Life of Sister

Dorothy Stang, tells her most poignant story yet – about anAmerican nun who died defending the poor.

The Sister of Notre Dame de Namur and ’64 NDNU alumna was murdered in February 2005 by hired gunmen in theAmazon state of Para, Brazil, where she spent 39 years work-

ing as a missionary to preservethe land of the poor in the rain-forest.

Originally from Dayton,Ohio, the 74-year-old nun was apassionate defender of the poor,committed to promoting socialjustice in an area marked by vio-lence and the murder of poorpeople who had been given landby the government.

Sr. Roseanne, NDNU’sExecutive Director of PlannedGiving and Professor Emerita,

was approached by fellow Sistersfrom Sr. Dorothy’s province in Ohioto write her biography shortly afterher death. They were impressed withthe style and tone of Sr. Roseanne’sfirst book, Julie Billiart, Woman ofCourage, about the founder of theSisters of Notre Dame. Orbis Pressconcurred, and Sr. Roseanne has since spent time researching,writing, and traveling to Brazil last summer to talk with thefarmers for whom Sr. Dorothy gave her life.

“Dorothy embodied the qualities of the mission of theSisters of Notre Dame de Namur, and models the hallmarks ofNDNU,” said Sr. Roseanne. “Her spirit lives on in the hearts of the people who have found their rights and are determined tocontinue her work for justice and peace in that troubled area.”

In May, Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, one of the rancherswho had been charged with paying for Sr. Dorothy’s murder,was convicted and sentenced to thirty years in jail. Known as“Bida,” he is the first convicted rancher to serve any time injail. “Hopefully, Bida’s trial will signal the beginning of justicefor the farmers and give them a ray of hope,” concluded Sr.Roseanne.

Sister Roseanne Murphy, S N D

APens a Poignant Tale

haron Bearce, NDNU’s ExecutiveAssistant for the School of Sciences,will be spending the month of July

following her life’s passion – paintinglandscapes. Her son, a well-known con-tractor, bought a home on 80 acres nearSix Rivers National Park in NorthernCalifornia, and mom can’t wait to visit.

The home sits on the picturesque Madd River. “I plan on creating a series of 10 to12 paintings in either pastels or oils,” said B earce, who received a bachelor of art degree from NDNU in 1977 and a master’s degreein museum studies and Hindu art fromSan Francisco State University in 1991.She insists her education gave her thefoundation she needed to begin her 30-plus-year career as an accomplished artist.

Bearce has made a strong reputationfor herself by painting abstract landscapesand nonobjective pastels in pieces thatcome alive with color, utilizing brightpink, yellow, orange, red, and purple.

“Growing up in California with itsnatural beauty and spirit of freedom has

been a wonderful gift,” said Bearce. “Thishas allowed me to develop sensitivity tothe land and the opportunity to pursue a life allowing for continual enrichment.

“I create landscape paintings based onremembered encounters with the earth,which I translate into abstracted visualexpressions of the land.”

She currently has a studio at TwinPines Park in Belmont. Exhibitions haveincluded The Gallery in Burlingame,Marin Open Spaces Exhibition, the

William Lester Gallery in PointReyes, Harbinger Gallery inArcata, CA, and the ZhuhaiMuseum in Zhuhai, the People’sRepublic of China.

If you’d like to see her work,Bearce has several prized abstracts

hanging on her wall in Ralston Hall,Office 302A. “That’s the core of me, painting and family, so I can’t imaginehaving a better summer.”

Sharon Bearce ’77 – A Passion for Color

S

2 0 0 7 I N DN U 15

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Graduate

Mondays, July 16

and November 12

6:30 p.m.

Ralston Hall Mansion

Evening Intensive

Wednesday, August 15

Tuesday, October 2

6:30 p.m.

Ralston Hall Mansion

MOST CURRENT event details athttp://www.ndnu.edu/alumni/upcoming-events.aspx

For further information contact jgiannini@ndnu.edu or refer to website.

Alumni & Family WeekendSeptember 28-30

Highlights:• Welcome reception and entertainment• Campus tours• Catch up with faculty and program

directors• Special reunions for classes of 1953-57,

1967, 1982 (See pages 8-11 for details!)

Fall Wine TourOctober 12-14Join us for our weekend trip to Sonoma, thesure highlight of which is a special lunch atGallo of Sonoma’s MacMurray Ranch, the

beautifully restored summer home of FredMacMurray. Details to come.

Seminar on FriendshipTuesday, October 30Led by Shirley Morrison, Senior Lecturer,

English. Details to come.

Little Women’s TeaSunday, November 4Join us at 3 p.m. in Ralston Hall Ballroom for

an afternoon of teatime fare and musical

entertainment for little women (ages 6-12)

and their guests. Details to come.

ADMISSION

I N F O R M ATION F O R U M S

NOT R E DA M E D E NA M U R UN I V E R S I TY