Volunteer Spotlight
June 2010
Ingrid MonzonIngrid Monzon, a UC Santa Barbara student, spent 70 hours volunteering at Rincon High School in Carpinteria from February until June. Her dedicated service supported individual students and the counseling office. Marlo Stoops, counselor, was grateful for the help. “Ingrid did a wonderful job at our school. She is amazing and we are sorry not to have her back next year. We are more than happy to give her any support needed for her future jobs.” Ingrid hopes to pursue a career in casework, counseling, or nonprofit management.
Volunteer Hall of Fame
Doug FordDoug Ford of D.D. Ford Construction has been instrumental in the success of Partners’ programming. With his connection to Tradart, Doug has coordinated the construction demonstration teams for the career days at La Cuesta High School, Dos Pueblos High School, Carpinteria High School, and the Los Prietos Boys Camp. This model of gathering a group of professionals together to cover school requests has proven very successful. Thank you to Doug for his personal volunteering, working with his staff to encourage them to volunteer, and extending into his industry sector to find additional individuals willing to help.
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MedBridge Development TeamBrennan de Raad and Jeremiah Kiely worked to coordinate a team of MedBridge Development volunteers to create a new tiled lunch area for Santa Barbara Junior High School. Over a period of several months, they identified local businesspeople, including Nola Stucky from NS Ceramic and Dan Ribbens from Ribbens Construction, willing to donate supplies and expertise towards the project.
DPHS Career Day VolunteersDos Pueblos High School had 227 volunteers come and share their career with students. More than 2,400 students participated. Pictures of those who participated are available here. If you’re interested in receiving updates about when local career days in Goleta, Santa Barbara, or Carpinteria are happening, please sign up.
Melissa MellottMelissa Mellott will be honored for her repeated visits as a guest speaker in local schools, speaking about her careers as an aesthetician at Spa Defined and author. Her patient demonstrations and enthusiasm have been well received by teachers and students. Melissa is especially prepared to work with our students as she recently published a book, The Little College Handbook, to help students navigate entering college.
At our January membership event, 50 individuals served as volunteer recruiters. They each went out to a table and shared about their experience volunteering in our local schools in an effort to encourage others to participate. From the event, we had 200 new volunteers commit to serve. Thank you again for your service in our schools and for sharing it with us at the event!
Michael Hamman, All Around Landscape SupplyLisa and Chris Cullen, Montecito Landscape
This month's honored volunteers are part of a team working to beautify Santa Barbara Junior High School. Michael Hamman of All Around Landscape Supply's expertise was not in the area needed for the project, so he called colleagues in the business until he identified Lisa and Chris Cullen of Montecito Landscape, who provided support to the project planning and design. Look to coming editions for the final project outcome!
Yardi Systems, Inc.
Thank you to Alex Lau, a programmer at Yardi Systems, Inc. Alex is a graduate of Santa Barbara Schools and has chosen to give back to our community by guest speaking in local classrooms. He has participated in career days for four years and recently went to Carpinteria High School as a "Career Choices" guest speaker. Teacher Erin Hansen thought his presentation about careers in computer programming was so good she wanted to give her students a test on it afterwards. Thanks again, Alex, for sharing your time and talent with our students.
Mike Williams & Jim Spink, ATK Space Systems ATK Space
President's Council Member
ATK Space Systems hosted Mrs. Swanson’s 5th grade class from McKinley School. Jim Spink, Mike Williams and other ATK employees showed the students demonstrations of equipment and provided a tour of the clean room. Students enjoyed the rare opportunity of seeing a Star-2 Solar Panel deploy (not generally viewed by the public). In addition, each student received a NASA model cut-out sheet of the Orion which is due to launch in 2015, to put together as a class or at home. Thank you ATK Space Systems for this special opportunity to see equipment that will soon be in space!
Joseph Holland
UCSB L.A.M.B.D.A.S.
President’s Council Member
Seven members of the Venoco team—Nicole Ling, Marybeth Carty, Derek Paulgaard, Laura Kranzler, Jennifer Parkes, Sasha Haddad and Jonathan Schuhrke—are currently meeting the needs of two Canalino School teachers by reading with their students once a week. Each of them volunteer only half an hour a month, but to the students in Ms. Aguila-Gonzalez’s and Ms. Rodriguez's class, it is an exciting chance to practice their reading skills. By sharing the responsibility, the Venoco team is able to maximize their impact and provide reliable and consistent help for these students.
Santa Barbara Bank & Trust President’s Council Member
Santa Barbara Bank & Trust Branch managers Christian Andrade and David Wilson hosted mock job interviews for graduating students of the Los Prietos Boys Camp. In addition, the students were given a tour of the facility and learned more about what happens at a bank. These students took a job preparation course for several weeks, and visited the bank as a culminating activity before their graduation from Camp. The students came prepared with applications and resumes and were interviewed by bank staff and guest interviewers, Dominique Blocker and Trenna Hunter. After the interviews were completed, each of the manages stayed and discussed interview tips, how to succeed at a job, and offered general good wishes to these boys who are working to turn their lives around. To date, several boys are now employed.
Kathi King
Society of Women Engineers