John Rivera

John Rivera is a twenty-seven-year-old math teacher. He was born in Texas, where he and his two siblings were raised by their grandmother. He has been teaching at East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy, a charter school, for three years. He is grateful to all the people who have helped him grow, learn, and overcome the obstacles in his life; he hopes to be that person for his students.

He is pictured above completing a worksheet with his Geometry class.

Watch my video here

Paloma Lucas

Paloma Lucas

Paloma Lucas is a professional artist in Palo Alto. This is a photograph of her at her worktable in her studio, where she works with her fellow artist Servane and a chihuahua named Watson. In this image I hoped to convey her openness- both to other people and to new printmaking techniques. 

Video

Maya Adam

Maya Adam works as a current lecturer and instructor at Stanford University. She began her career as a ballet dancer and after 10 years of training, acquired an MD to become an infectious disease doctor within the pediatrics division. Now, Maya works as an illustrator for informational courses that she creates to provide education regarding medical issues to those who cannot access them. ​In this photo, she is pictured with her three children (Kiran, Misha, and Milan) and halfway through Kiran and Milan decided they wanted to "dab" in the photo much to Maya's discontent. 

listen to her speak about her transition over life and careers here 

Lisa Van Dusen

Lisa Van Dusen currently works at the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund as their Chief Relationship Officer. At the time of the podcast, she was working at Palo Alto Weekly and had recently finished adding all of their content online. In her free time, she enjoys drawing, painting, walking and helping in her community.

Podcast

Carl Williams

Carl Williams has been living on the streets of downtown Menlo Park for over 20 years. He has a strong connection with his religion, and tries to live his everyday life by God's will.

See a short photo essay detailing Carl's life here.

Sharon Robinson

Sharon Robinson is a personal trainer and sports nutritionist at the JCC in Los Gatos. She is also an National Physique Committee figure competitor, natural body builder, marathon runner, tri-athlete, and a trained lifeguard. The photo above is a picture of her after a training session with my mom and her friends. The day this photo was taken was a crazy pants day, and Sharon is always ready for this fun tradition. 

podcast 

Larry Bach

Larry Bach is a 27-year-old Vietnamese American. He is in his second year of teaching math at William C. Overfelt High School in San Jose, California. Larry has wanted to be a teacher for a long time. He's passionate about math and his students, and wants to positively influence his community. Above, I have just asked if I can take a photo of him, and he is straightening out his desk before "posing" for the shot.
Podcast

Dr. Peter Yi

Dr. Peter Yi is a prosthodontist with 30 years of dental experience. He runs a small private practice that specializes in implants and surgeries, and he is also a faculty member in the postgraduate prosthodontics division at UCSF. Dr. Yi views dentistry as an intersection between art and science, and he is especially committed to helping improve patient’s lives through his practice.

Click here to see photos from Dr. Yi's lab. (See speaker notes for captions.)

Vilma Barrios

Vilma is a nanny, wife and mother, theology student, and active member of her church. Although she did not expect to be any of those things a few years ago, she truly loves all of her jobs and feels very happy and grateful to be where she is now. However, she strives to constantly improve and grow: to always be kinder, to listen more, to try harder. In all aspects of her life, Vilma wants to understand what is around her and treat everyone and everything with respect.

See my photo/video essay here

Rashmi Tyagi

Rashmi Tyagi is a computer engineer at Oracle. She lives in Union City with her husband, two kids, and golden retriever, Appa. She enjoys exercising, gardening, and reading during her free time. She grew up in Dehradun, India and has been living in the US for more than 15 years. 

Link to podcast

Paula Smith

Paula Smith started Brain Exercises at Douce (B.E.A.D.) because she wanted to have a space where she and her friends could talk about anything that really interested them. They trade articles and books, share video clips, analyze maps, and expand their vocabulary, all with the goal of enjoying learning and becoming informed citizens of the world. In this image Paula and the B.E.A.D.er's have just finished their discussion for the day and have gone through quite a lot of content (all of the paper on the tables in front of them was the research they shared) Paula sits on the far left, in the middle is Joan Polinsky, and Christine Currie is on the right.

Here are some recordings from that day's discussion.

Sarah May Morris

Sarah May Morris is twenty five and works as a Special Education aid at Escondido Elementary School. She did ROTC in college and therefore is currently in the military reserves. At college she studied to be a policewoman, but ended up getting involved in education when she met her current partner Daisy who is a teacher at Gunn high school. She is a stepmom to Daisy’s seven year old daughter Ella and has devoted the past three years to loving them both unconditionally. As for her work life, she loves her job and despite her slightly less than powerful position, she continues to push for what she believes is right for her students regardless of what others think of her.

Here is the link to my podcast

Deenie Clinton

Deenie Clinton, affectionately known as “the rat lady” by my 6-year-old self, is a Biology teacher at Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton. She has worked there for the past 20 years and up until 2001 taught as a nun; leaving the sisterhood let her focus more on teaching the way she wanted it. She has two pet rats, Nutmeg and Tum Tum (pictured) that she lets roll around during classes in their plastic, exercise balls. Aside from teaching, she loves to scuba dive and travel to places known for their unique marine life.

To view my podcast, click here.

Maria Majka

Maria Majka is the principal of Baywood Elementary School in San Mateo. She has been an educator her whole career and is very passionate about her work. She loves being involved with the different communities that make up the Baywood family and energetically takes on the hard work required of her job.

Here is a link to my podcast with photos.

Jo-Ellen Pozner

Jo-Ellen is the mother of two children, Simon and Gideon. She is also a business ethics professor at Santa Clara University. She is kind and enthusiastic, and lives her life as a professional woman who tries to teach others to live into their values. 

Listen to her talk about her religion here.

Rachael Small

Rachael Small is a neonatal nurse practitioner at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. She recently had a son, Zane, who is currently four months old. She will be returning back to work in January, but for now she is spending most of her time with him. She was originally from the Midwest but moved to Palo Alto slightly over a year ago. Here is my Podcast with her regarding her job. 

Rachael with Zane

Nessa Yecguanchuy

This is Nessa. She is currently a barista at Starbucks and a student at Chabot College. Her mom is Peruvian-Spanish and her dad was Peruvian-Chinese. Nessa previously worked in fashion merchandising after getting her degree from SF City College. Her favorite thing about herself is her compassion and ability to be understanding.

Robert Valderrama

Robert Valderrama (in blue cap) is a construction superintendent at Kent Construction, which is based in Gilroy, California. As superintendent, he reviews and coordinates plans between all phases and jobs while ensuring accuracy and quality. Robert strives to not only be a dependable leader on the site, but also an understanding father to his children.

Nobu Hoyo

Chef Nobu Hoyo is the head chef at Voyageur du Temps, a bakery in downtown Los Altos. Chef Nobu used to be a professional soccer player before he changed paths and became a baker, after studying in Japan and France. Chef Nobu holds a deep love for every aspect of the baking process, from the ingredients to the final creation, and he is happiest when he sees a customer enjoy one of his pastries. 

My video on Chef Nobu can be found here.

Sean Dawkins

Sean Dawkins is basketball referee for middle school boys' basketball after having recently graduated from University of San Diego with a major in English. Sean's future prospects are wide and vast with his deep interest in the arts from music, to film, to graphic novels and comic books— but as of now he is focusing on his music. He hopes to release two mix tapes worth of songs soon with several music videos and album covers already in store.

Watch my video here

Mary Adham

Mary Adham was born and raised in San Jose, California, and now lives in Menlo Park. She is one of the original members of Picket Fence, a local organization dedicated to connecting people over the age of 50. She enjoys spending time with her husband Omar and 24-year-old son Zach, as well as teaching an Intro to Social Media class to senior citizens. Above all, what drives Mary is a desire to better her community, and she is constantly thinking of new ideas to improve the lives of those around her.  In the photograph above, Mary is working on creating a CarePage -- an online page that updates a person's friends on their well-being -- for one of her close friends, who was recently hospitalized for breast cancer.

Listen to my podcast here, which is about Mary's childhood growing up in the 1960's in San Jose.

Ron Harvey- A Neiman Marcus Stylist

Ron Harvey is a young man working as a stylist at Neiman Marcus at Stanford Shopping Center. He is freshly out of college, having studied Graphic Design at San Jose State University. Ron enjoys spending time with his family, eating good food, and practicing self-love.

Nicolette "Nikki" McNair

Nikki McNair has been a gymnast since age four. Her last year at Stanford University brings about many emotions: anticipation, excitement, but also fear. Once graduation comes around, she will be a retired gymnast and will be catapulted into a new adult life. Out of all of her accomplishments, Nikki hopes to be remembered for leading by example and looking out for her friends and family.  

Here is the link to my podcast where Nikki reflects on her trip to India and what she learned.

Lourdes "LuLu" Lopez

Lourdes “LuLu” Lopez is the co-owner and founder of LuLu’s restaurant. Growing up in Mexico, LuLu’s family had always owned a restaurant and beginning at a very young age, she would help in the kitchen every day after school. Ever since then she has had a passion for cooking authentic mexican food. In 2005, she and her business partner Natalie opened their first restaurant, LuLu’s on the Alameda together in Menlo Park. It has been very successful and has since grown into five locations around the Peninsula. She is very sweet and shy to acknowledge her success but is clearly proud of all that she has accomplished. When she is not working extremely hard, Lulu loves to spend time with her children and grandchildren, most of whom live in the Bay Area.

Ana Thompson (Alexia Romani)

Ana Thompson

As Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director of Opportunity Fund, Ana's days are extremely busy in the office. Opportunity Fund is a nonprofit that lends loans to small businesses, like florists, bakeries, food trucks, etc., in order to help them succeed in successfully starting a business. These businesses are ones that are not big enough to get a loan from an actual bank. Once Ana returns home from her busy day, she is not able to relax-- instead she has to care for her two boys, Philip (9) and Kim (20), whom she both adopted. She is a single mother.

Photo Essay Link

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jIl7g0mqEJmJQEfA9yNFqbj0PO6Qd9C3--Ovu8ecbTI/edit#slide=id.g19b7bda1f8_0_25

Nancy Couperus

Nancy Couperus is the founder of the 4H Riding for the handicapped program which aims to help children with physical disabilities improve motor skills and coordination through horseback riding. She is also one of the founders of the Menlo Park Farmers market - a place she still goes to every Sunday. Nancy's warm disposition and quick smile touches everyone in a special way. She is pictured with her favorite horse, Reno.




 My podcast, where Nancy describes her favorite memory at the barn, can be found here.