Watsonville HS Class of 1988
Saturday, November 1, 2008 - Eagle Ridge Golf Club, Gilroy, CA - 6:00pm - 11:00pm
- Paul Farmer Here’s my life update: I was married to Britney Spears for two years and had a couple of kids, but it didn’t work out. You might have seen that on TMZ. In the real world, I own OfficeStar Computer Training Centers (Salinas, Santa Cruz , and Watsonville ) with fellow Class of ’88 alum, Larritha Gardner. I’m very involved in the community, and serve as the President of the Salinas Jaycees. I’m totally looking forward to seeing you all at the reunion. Come on and let’s party together, while we still can!
-Christy (Brown) Mullane I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone after all these years... e-mail: CMullanes5@aol.com
- David and Lorraine (Moreno) Sotomayor This is what happens when you marry your High School Sweetheart ... Happy Halloween and we look forward to seeing you all soon, David and Lorraine
- Jason Ura Spent some time in Chicago, but back in San Jose now and working in pharmaceutical sales. Thanks to the committees that planned both the 10th and 15th reunions. I'm hoping to see a lot of you Wildcatz at the 20th! blog: http://airecaps.blogspot.com
- Margaret (Valdez) Roberts Can't wait to catch up with everyone and find out what's been happening in your lives the last 20 years ... who's adventured the furthest from Watsonville, etc. I recently relocated from the Bay Area to the Sacramento area and have been pleasantly surprised to find many of our classmates out this way too! If you are out there undecided about attending, don't worry - it'll be a great party and fun laughing out loud at all of the high school memories! contact info: robertsgirls01@yahoo.com blog: http://robertsfamadv.blogspot.com
- Jeanna (Silva) Carmo
- Mike and Larritha (Gardner) Rico
- Joe Barsi I graduated from Cal Poly SLO in 1993 and moved to Minneapolis to start my career. After a couple of freezing winters, I moved to "Hotlanta" in 1995 to thaw out. That same year, I married my high school sweetheart, Leanne Moncovich (WHS 90), and convinced her to move to Atlanta. Once I started saying, "y'all" and "fixin," I knew "I was going back to Cali." Do you remember that song? In 1996 we moved back to the bay area and have lived there ever since. We are blessed to have two healthy children, Josie (11 years) and Billy (9 years) and we reside in Danville. I'm looking forward catching up with everyone at the reunion. Cheers!!!!
- Todd Wilson
- Judy Nagai I'm looking forward to getting back to my Wildcat roots after spending time as a UNLV Rebel, Richmond Spider, Stanford Cardinal, Vermont Catamount and Cal Poly Mustang. I spend my days as a development officer for UNLV's College of Hotel Administration but the past 8 years have been spent in alumni relations, planning reunions and reconnecting alumni to their alma mater ... how nice it is not having to plan this reunion (thanks Jason!). I look forward to reconnecting with everyone in November.
-Kristiann (Erbe) Monti
-Zulema (Cervantes) Ela After leaving Watsonville 20 years ago, I went to Claremont McKenna College in LA and worked in Orange Co. for State Farm until 1995. Then they made me an offer I couldn't refuse to move to Bakersfield. And we've stayed in the area ever since. I've been married to my college sweetie, Dan Ela, for 12 years now. After that, I became a teacher and taught for 5 years before making the biggest job transition yet-to a stay at home mom. I love it, although some days, minutes...can be quite challenging when you have a 4 3/4 yr old and 2 yr old triplets. Ironically, we moved to the outskirts to a little town called Arvin, which is very much like Watsonville was many years ago. ( I swore I'd never live in a small town again!) We enjoy spending our free time waterskiing which is out the back door. I'm looking forward to chatting with everyone. It's been a long time! E-mail: zdela@yahoo.com
- Linda Knego
- Kincy Clark
- Angelica (Martinez) Sammons
- Manuel & Michelle (Bonita) Vargas After graduation I went to work at Nob Hill Foods
in Capitola for a little while, then went to Central Coast College to get my data entry
certification and from there went to work in the Frozen Foods Industry for about 5yrs till I decided
to get into Medical and went to work for a medical company in different parts of
California ranging from Monterey, San Jose,
Palm Springs (which we lived there for about 5yrs)
to Riverside then finally in Union City. Where in '94 I met my husband Manuel Vargas we married in '97.
He also is Class of '88. He has been in the Carpenter's Union for the last 19 yrs. Manuel has three children
from his previous marriage Sonia 21, Daniel 19, and Mike 17.
Both of Manuel's oldest boys have just joined the
Navy and we couldn't be more proud of them!! We have two little boys together. Ryan is 8 and Justin is 5. So I ended
up taking on the hardest job in the world with a major pay
cut(ha-ha) and devoted my time to being a stay at home mother
for all the kids!!! We enjoy family time together on
any great lake we can find with the whole family or
just getting together any chance we can. It will be nice to see
everyone it's been such a long time 20 years went by
fast!!!
- Timothy Tang
- Deborah (Love) Jones I'm actually being paid to do what I love. I am a Board Certified Neonatal Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Nurse Specialist. I will start on my Doctorate of Nursing Practice at George Washington University in Spring 2009. I'm engaged to be married on 10/5/2008. (She's married now!!!) I try to enjoy life to the fullest and find as much joy as I can. Looking forward to the reunion, it should be a hoot!
- Willie Wat San Diego 10 years now working as an Artists in video games. Other than that, goofing off as much as possible.
- Lorenzo Sanchez I am very happily married and have been for 15 years to my beautiful
wife Yolanda, we have two wonderful children Vanessa (9) and Isaiah (2).
right now we have one pet a German Shephard named Koda. Some of things I
like to do are: Travel, camp, and I love Firefighting, but had to
resign and refocus my energy on my main priorities like family,classes
for building inspector and operate my sign business. I live in Soledad,
CA where I work for the City as a Code Enforcement Officer, teach
confirmation classes, board member for the recreation district, school
site council member, KoC, youth leader, and proud father and happy
husband. I love my life.
- Ruby (Baniaga) Kalidonis
- Sean Pate - Michelle (Dutra) Duafala
- Jeff Yahiro Yes, that's Jeff being interviewed on the Ellen Show. Ask him more about it at the reunion! He got to interact with Kristen Chenoweth. Lucky guy...
- Claudia (Luevano) Cordova After graduation from Watsonville High, I decided to take a year off from school and I went to live in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. While in Cabo, I worked at a private school tutoring in English and at the Giggling Marlin Restaurant as an assistant to the General Manager. In May of '89, I came back to the US and went to work for Nob Hill Foods. I did that for 5 years. Then went to work for Silicon Valley Systems in Santa Cruz in April of '95. They were owned by TDK at the time, then were bought by Texas Instruments. While working at Texas Instruments I went to Tech School and got my certificate in Computer Science and Technology. I worked at Texas Instruments until 1999, then got hired at Alianza Charter School as an Enrichment Specialist in Computers. I have worked in the after school program at Alianza for 4 years and am going into my 5th year there. I also work at Aptos Junior High in the office. I have been at Aptos Junior for 2 years and am going into my 3rd year. I have been married for 16 years to Jorge Cordova; we have 2 children - daughter, Claudia Ivanna (15), who is a junior at WHS and a son - Jason Koby (13), who is an 8th grader at Alianza Charter School. Jorge is from Guanajuato, Mexico, so we travel there every December to visit his parents and family. I still live in Watsonville and I love the weather there. I couldn't see myself living anywhere else. Maybe if I had to move, I would move to Mexico and just retire. We have a home in Leon, Guanajuato. e-mail: claudiac1@msn.com myspace: www.myspace.com/claudiac1 She has a Facebook account too! (under Claudia Luevano Cordova)
- John Navarro
- Christina (Segura) Morales After graduation, I got married to Ben, my jr. high sweetheart.
Had our first son Josh, Ben joined Army, he deployed to Iraq-Desert
Storm 1991. Stressful period to say the least. We lived in Southern
California for a bit while Ben worked and Fort Irwin, National Training
Center. During that time we had our second son Jake. We returned to
the central coast in 1996.
The most exciting place I worked at when I was 8-5 was at a Roller
Coaster Manufacturing company. I met Mrs. Geisel better known as Dr.
Seuss's wife. The childrens book author. Just so you know she is a
sweet lady who by the way all the characters look like, yes all of
them... Cindy Lou Who down to the Grinch ! (In a good way)
I started my real estate career in 2000, Its something I was
leaning towards right after graduation but got sidetracked with
"Life". I currently work at Bailey Properties in Aptos. However I can
sell anywhere in California and Refer out of State. I love it. Even
in this changing market. My role as Army wife has primed me for the
rapid changes that are occuring in real estate. :-) I enjoy real
estate very much. I was President of the Watsonville Association of
Realtors in 2006 and have been very active and involved with leadership
at the local and state level. It's my profession and I take it
seriously.
-Yvonne (Dias) DeBurle After graduation I got a job working for Watsonville Federal Savings and Loan as a bank teller. I transferred to the Prunedale branch in 1990 when my parents decided to sell our ranch that was off of Casserly Rd. We Moved to Los Banos, CA in July of 1991 where I met My husband of 13 1/2 years, Matthew DeBurle. We got married in June of 1995 and moved to Reno, NV 3 days after arriving home from our honeymoon. We moved to Reno so Matt could go to UNR for his masters Degree in Environmental Engineering. He graduated in 1997 and got a Job working for the State of Nevada in 1998 where he currently works as an environmental engineer in air quality. I worked for a couple of Casinos as a Revenue Auditor and in the Accounts Receivable department. I then went to work for Saint Mary's Hospital in Insurance verification. We had our first daughter, Cosette, in
October of 2001, and I started doing bookkeeping from home as well as
working at the hospital. In 2002 I was able to be a
stay-at-home mom and still do bookkeeping. My second daughter,
Amanda, was born in March of 2005. In December of 2005 we
sold our home in the Reno area and bought a home in the
Washoe Valley / Carson City area, as Matt was tired of commuting to Carson City
to work. We bought a home in the country on 1 acre with lots of room for
the girls. And Kelli, our 3rd daughter was born in August of
2006. Kelli was born with Down's syndrome and a heart defect.
She was going to need heart surgery if it did not repair itself.
In June of 2007 I went back to work for Save Mart as a cashier part time as
we were going to have to go through Heart surgery with
Kelli.
Kelli had her Heart surgery in July of
this year. She is doing great!!!! By looking at her you would
never know she had a heart problem or surgery for that matter. Kelli is
now 2 years old and said to be at the level of a normal 18 - 24 month old
child. She has been a great blessing for us as well as
our other 2 girls who are now 7 and 3 1/2 years
old.
I recently found out that I got
the Job I applied for as Key Carrier/ Front End Manager at Save Mart in
Carson City. I and my family are excited to see what the future holds
for us.
- David and Christina (Gomas) Brushingham
- Andrea Souza I've been living in Elk Grove, CA for the past 19 years and have two boys, Paul (16) and Joe (9). I work for the Contractor's State License Board. I would love to hear from anyone out there - especially Margaret (Valdez) who I see is now in my area! I am totally looking forward to seeing everyone at the reunion! Can't wait! e-mail: asouza@dca.cslb.ca.gov
- Miyoon (Kari) Ahn e-mail: kariahn@yahoo.com Facebook (under Kari Ahn Kindred)
- DeeAnn Martinez-Guzman I married my high school boyfriend (Danny Guzman) in '94. I earned a PhD in Molecular Biology from UCLA in 2006. I'm now a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry working on vaccine development... and love my job. Danny and I live in Dublin CA, ~30 miles east of San Fransisco.
- Jennifer Anderson
- Joe Marines
- Claudia (Ruiz) Fleury
- Jeana (Boling) Arnold Married for 17 years to Nick. We have two boys, Chad,
age 13 and Owen, age 10.
We live in Hollister and run our own
business. I am very involved in my community.
- Jerry Osorio
- Nicole (Moncovich) Palazzo
- Dyan (Imlay) Bahu
- Alicia (Vasquez) Beard
- Kriste Cortez
- Teresa (Ramirez) Munoz Teresa’s family: Husband-Freddy Munoz, sons: Chris, Freddy, Nicholas, Michael and finally “Princess Sophia”
-Abel Mejia I have been in education since I graduated. I worked in the Third
World Teaching Resource Center working with music, photos, essays and
lesson plans for teachers wanting a taste of the world in their
curriculum. That summer after my freshman year they hired me at $8.98
an hour to grade papers, tutor the incoming freshmen class of students
who weren't quite yet ready for prime time: Summer Bridge students.
Upon graduating I was torn between wanting to go to law school or
going into teaching, my vocation since the third grade. I took a
chance and began my post-university career as a teacher's aide at
juvenile hall. I had to see what happened to students when things
don't go right for them in the regular public school system. After
three short months I was ready to expand the use of my talents and
moved over to Watsonville Community School on Airport Boulevard. After
1.5 years I decided to go back to grad school. My first "real"
teaching assignment was at Rolling Hills Middle School where I taught
English Language Development, US history and art. Yes, art. I read a
couple of books and relied on the one art class I took as a ninth
grader with Ms. Bev Wesley who now sings in a group called the Broken
G-Strings. Bad visual!
- Kristy (Gordon) Bobeda
- Dianne Avelar
- Ramon Gomez During the past 20 years
I have been trying to improve the community and also raise my family.
I was married in 1995 to Juana (Ortiz) Gomez and we have two wonderful
boys, David Canek Gomez and Diego Ramon Gomez. I graduated from
the University of California, Santa Cruz and earned degrees in Economics
and History. I am currently attending law school at the Monterey College
of Law and working as a paralegal for an employment law firm. I still love baseball and foot ball.
During the past six years I managed my son, David Canek’s little league
team at Salsi/National Little League. As part my commitment to the community
I ran for Watsonville city council and was elected two terms from 1998
to 2006. I served as Mayor Protem of the City of Watsonville for
one year and also as President of Association of Monterey Bay Area
Governments (AMBAG) for one year. I look forward to seeing everyone at the class reunion.
- Ben Okamoto
- Irene (Alcantar) Navarro After high school I finished with cosmotology and tried making a career and did not stick around long enough to make a living. I went straight to banking and I liked it. I got married in 1992. From banking I was introduced to real estate and I worked for Century 21 in Watsonville. However my husband and I made a big move to Nevada in 1996. We live in the city of Mesquite. We are an 1 hour north of Las Vegas. I am back in real estate. I work for Century 21 I love real estate.
- Patricia (Ayala) Martinez
- Victor Valencia
As I was asked to write a short update of what I've been up to since we graduated, I struggled as I would have to write a book for you to know who I am ... working on the book already. I know some of you (maybe since junior high - Go Pajaro Panthers!), but most likely, just like in high school, we never crossed words as we probably took different classes and participated in different activities. Many of you did not speak Spanish and I was just struggling and learning English. My English has gotten better and I was actually looking forward to our pre-reunion in Santa Cruz because I felt I would be able to communicate with all of you. To my surprise, I got there and I discovered that Paul Farmer now speaks better Spanish than I do!
In High School, I played soccer and tried to survive and stay out of trouble. Actually come to know it, soccer probably saved me. I was never voted as most likely to succeed and if there was a category for most likely to not make it to his 30s, I would've gotten a couple of votes. Success is defined in many ways, but in my parents' eyes if you didn't become a criminal, drug addict, gang member or thief, you are a success story, everything else beyond that was extra. I decided to exceed expectations and went for the "Extra." Today I am paid to work with students who are just like I was. I'm back at Watsonville High where I've been a counselor for the last 6 years, after stops at H.A. Hyde Elementary (taught 5 years) and Aptos High School (counselor for 5 years). Today I have the honor of referring to people like Brad Hubbard, Amparo Alvarez, Delia Mendez, Vivan Moutafian, Debbie Michel, Huve Rivas, Gerardo Loyola and many others as colleagues. Teachers who back in high school helped us in so many ways. I've been married for 15 very happy years to the most beautiful lady in Watsonville, Lorena Preciado-Orejel. Have three beautiful kids: Monique (13), Miguel, Jr. (11) and our little princess Isabella (4). Still live in Watsonville and working very hard to make this community a safe and beautiful place for everyone, especially our youth. I am looking forward to partying with all of you and to share any chapters of my soon to be best selling book. Thank you Jason for all the hard work and time you are putting into this event. Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat!!!
- Gabriel Gutierrez I am the Student Activities Coordinator at Cabrillo College and was one of the founders of the Watsonville Flag Football League. - Donald Hiura
- Shelly (Nagai) Ichiho
- Kevin Kowalkowski - Michele (Harris) Averill
- Wesley Tao
- Shon and Janis (Accornero) Day Shon and I are looking forward to seeing everyone. Especially Dave and Kris Brushingham, our best friends from high school (& Shon's best friend since grammar school). It's been too many years. We thought of many of you through the years and hoped everyone was well & now we get to see you for ourselves. We can't wait.
- Mark Saldana Member of sac state olympic wtlifting team(2001-2005) PHFE WIC Nutritionist(currently)
- Ana Isabel Lopez ¡Hola a todos! Estoy muy feliz de seguir en contacto con ustedes y de tener la oportunidad de verlos otra vez pronto :) - Maria (Luna) Bjur - Matt & Sally (Ernst) McCollum - Danny Rodgers
- Mr. Hashimoto Congratulations on your 20th Class Reunion! We are looking forward to seeing you.
My wife, Marcia, has been retired from teaching for four years,
and I've been retired since 1996. We both devote our efforts to human
and civil rights issues, working mainly with, but not limited to, the
Japanese American Citizens League.
Whenever teachers from the Monterey Bay area and Silicon Valley
invite me to speak to their students about internment of Japanese
Americans during WW II, I am both honored and grateful. The students'
ages range from 3rd graders to college/university level.
Marcia and I continue the Sno Catz tradition of skiing each winter, and we also enjoy our world travel program.
A personal weekly joy includes golfing with Jack Spurlock (Spanish
teacher), Jim Kosinski (math teacher), Bob Bivins (PE) and Norm Haney
(Driver's Training/Science).
Onward!
Mas Hashimoto
- Mrs. Sorenson I began teaching high school
math in 1965 at Santa Ynez High School in Santa Barbara County.
I was 23, not much older than some of my students and thought my success
stemmed from my young age and ability to communicate. I quit after
four years to raise a family. I sold real estate in the 70’s
and worked as a teacher’s aide and substitute teacher. I returned
to teaching in 1984 at Watsonville High when my daughter entered high
school. One of my first assignments was to be advisor of the Class
of 1988! I soon found that I could still be successful in my forties;
that good teaching has little to do with age. I always told myself that I
would retire before I became a crabby old lady. I thought I had
accomplished that in 2002, but while signing a yearbook I found an unflattering
profanity scrawled across my photo, the work of an unhappy college prep
student I had caught cheating. I tempered that with a message
from a 15 year old sophomore who wrote “I love you Mrs. Sorensen.
I swear I am coming back in 20 years to take you out!” Just
think, I would then be 79 and he 35, a May-December romance at it’s
finest. For the past six years I have
worked at the University of California coordinating programs for potential
math and science teachers and teaching a variety of seminar classes.
I quit for good in June and now spend my days doing what I want to do.
So I decorate, sew, garden, create broken china mosaics, and be Grammie
to Riley Alice who just started kindergarten and her brother Willem
who is two. I run into many former students. My husband says he can’t take me anywhere without hearing someone yell “Mrs. Sorensen!” It gives me great pleasure to know that I have had a positive affect on so many lives, but that’s what teaching is all about. I look forward to catching up with the Class of ‘88.
- Mr. Jones
- Nicole (Boatman) Schott
- Carrie (Davidson) Valenzuela
Pablito Farmer, I am ready to party with you!!! It is a great feeling to be getting close to reunite with many of you. Thank you to the organizing committee for the efforts and congratulations on what seems to be a successful outcome! After high school I attended and graduated from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts; the experience there was absolutely unforgettable! Higher education since then has not been part of my life but I hope to some day go back and get a graduate degree. I lived in San Francisco a while then moved to Los Angeles for about four years. I realized then that I enjoyed and cherished being closer to my family so in late 2000 I moved back to Watsonville and have been living here since. I currently work for the Pajaro Valley School District as Executive Assistant to the Superintendent; in this position I also assist the Board of Education. I enjoy this office very much since it is a political and educational environment – and it gets dramatic during election time! I love seeing classmates who are dedicating themselves to education and to the children of this community. I married Darren Stoughton on 7 – 7 – 07 (indeed a very lucky day!); I have two children, Kyle Ethan, 4 years old, and Nathan Andres, 6 months – yes, we lived in sin for a couple of years and I was quite relieved when I didn’t burn up as I walked into church. I feel very blessed to have found this wonderful man who has a kind heart and is an incredible father. My life now is my family; they have made me a better person and have given me a greater purpose in life. I look forward to seeing you at the reunion; happy to see that Mrs. Sorenson is attending – she’s definitely one of my favorites!
- Carlos Ceballos - Pete Espejo I am a Project Manager for Wincor-Nixdorf. They are an ATM manufacturing company based in Paderborn Germany. The main US branch is in Austin, Texas so I work from home which is nice because I am not commuting anymore. I have been with them for about 7 months but I have been installing their equipment for about 6 years when I worked as their install vendor. I have been in the banking industry for the last 19 years and this is the first time I do not commute. I still dabble in locksmithing but just on the side along with security and communication. I have been married for 9 years to my wife Delia and I have 3 kids; Peter (18), James (8) and Cyrene (4). I have been living in Gilroy for 4 years, not far from the reunion. See you all soon. - Tracy Ruelas-Hashimoto
- Kelly Miller
- Stacy (Huckaby) Cuccia I've lived in Calaveras County in the Sierra foothills for the last 5+ years - with my wonderful hubby Dave, to whom I have been married since 1995 & with whom I have 2 sweet girls, Karina Jasmin (1997) and Courtney Jem (2000). We also have a lab/heeler mix, Frodo Baggins, and a tabby cat, Purrssee. I worked at car dealerships, restaurants, and an event planner in the years following high school. After getting married, I worked for my dad-in-law at his pizza shop until my hubby & I opened our own in Watsonville in March of '99 - Pizza Amore. We were there for 5 years before we decided to move away from the traffic and congestion of the coast. So we packed up & moved to Jumpin' Frog country in 2003, opening a bakery (which we've since closed in order to move on to better things). See my pics on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19728175@N03 or check out my blog: http://mamacuccia.blogspot.com. I'm looking forward to doling out a ton of hugs & kisses to my
long-lost and tremendously missed chums from the glory days of the
80's! See ya at the party! :) - David DaSilva
- Kim (Curutan) Segura
- Shannon Billingsley
- Gloria Jimenez
- Matt Jones
- Loretta Tabag
- Mary Ann Netto
- Joann Jimenez
- Diane Jimenez
- Eddie Martinez
Since
graduation in 1988, I have joined my family's business here in
Watsonville and enjoy working alongside my father. Five years ago I
married my beautiful wife Rocio, and now we have a baby boy, 18 months
old named Joseph Angel. Life could not be better!! Looking forward to
seeing everyone!!
- Ben Carrillo
Still living in the Watsonville area. Work for the county of Santa Cruz
Public Works. Married 12 years to my wife Maria, 3 kids, Stephanie 11,
Natalia 7 & Erika 2. See you all soon.
- Greg Walker
- Connie (Isidro) Cain
- Christine Isidro
|
