News
Our Annual Holiday Party and Scholarship Fundraiser, held on Dec. 3, 2023, was a huge success. We not only had our largest attendance in a number of years, but also raised a much larger total of scholarship funds for the coming academic year. Eight of our scholarship recipients were in attendance and Noely Escalante (Nursing graduate December 2023) and Kayla Mitchell (Nutrition and Food Science December 2023) gave us updates on their future endeavors. We were honored to have in attendance SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson, who gave us an update on the most recent activities at SJSU and Vice President for Advancement Judy Nagai (a Watsonville HS grad). The party's keynote speaker was the honorable Fred Keeley (SJS Alum) mayor of Santa Cruz. Mark your calendars for next year's party on Sunday, December 8th at Seascape Golf Club.
Annual Member's BBQ and Meet Our New Scholarship Recipients was held on Oct, 1, 2023 at Roaring Camp Railroads. This was our largest member attendance in a number of years. We were joined by seven scholarship recipients, both continuing and new who either introduced themselves to the members present or gave us an update on their academic experiences at SJSU. SJSU Alumni Associate Executive Director Valerie Gonzales was in attendance and gave us an update on San Jose State.
Congratulations to Kendra Kannegaard, the 2023 Scotts Valley Woman of the Year Award Winner. Kendra was a recipient of a San Jose State University Scholarship. She graduated in Spring 2018 and is currently a drama teacher at Scotts Valley High School. Donna Ziel, Scholarship Committee Chair, was present at the awards event.
Congratulations for our Spring 2023 Graduating Scholarship Recipients Melissa Martinez, Natalie DuVernois, and Gabby Sandoval. Melissa graduated summa cum laude in Theater Arts, Natalie graduated summa cum laude in Child and Adolescent Development, and Gabby graduated in Materials Engineering. Natalia will be pursuing a teaching credential this fall at SJSU and Gabby will be entering a master's degree in Engineering at SJSU.
Congratulations to Fall 2022 Scholarship Recipient Graduates Michelle Ibarra and Alex Uribe. Alex received his degree in Civil Engineering and is now working for Granite Construction in Watsonville and Michelle graduated magna cum laude in Psychology.
Congratulations to Scholarship recipient Marinelle Victorio on receiving her BSN and RN. She is beginning a new position at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital..
Our Chapter Board of Directors has scheduled a number of alumni events for this Year.
May 18th, Tour of the Castro Adobe State Historic Park and box lunch picnic, Watsonville.
September 11th, Annual Members BBQ and meet our scholarship recipients.
Our annual members BBQ and meet our scholarship recipients was held at Roaring Camp Railroad and Park in Felton. The BBQ free to members and open to guests. We will try to get 25 participants to qualify for a group rate on the steam train to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and return after the BBQ. Members and guests in attendance were able to hear from the seven scholarship recipients in attendance about their experiences attending SJSU during a pandemic and now being able to attend in person.
December 4th, Annual Holiday Party and Scholarship Fundraiser will be held at the Seascape Golf Club in Rio Del Mar.
Our Holiday Party Silent Auction (to raise scholarships for our continuing and new recipients) will begin at 12:00 pm. Brunch will follow at noon followed by a short program including a SJSU main campus update and statements from our scholarship participants in attendance. Invitations are being sent to all member and our scholarship recipients. If you are interested in attending or donating, please download an invitation and RSVP Form.
Our scholarship committee has met and selected four new recipients for the 2021-2022 school year.
SJSU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, SANTA CRUZ CHAPTER ANNOUNCES 2021-22 AWARDS
The San Jose State University Alumni Association, Santa Cruz Area Chapter has announced four new the winners of scholarships for the 2021-22 academic year. Three are from local high schools and one is a transfer from Cabrillo College. Bios and photos of our new scholarship recipients can be found in the Scholarship section 2021-2022.
The new scholarship recipients exhibited outstanding academic records, exceptional community and school contributions and leadership, and the determination to overcome hardships and excel in their professional goals. We are proud to be able to support these new Spartans!
Our contuining scholarship recipients are all doing very well academically. Four received Dean's Scholar Awards (3.65 gpa or better) and three received President's Scholar (4.0 gpa) for at least one semester. Congratulations to all for making progress during this past very trying year. One is scheduled to graduate this coming year.
The SJSU Alumni Association, Santa Cruz Chapter provides $20,000 annually in scholarships to Santa Cruz County students who are attending San Jose State University. Our scholarships are renewable and we are currently supporting 16 renewing students as well as our four new awardees. Funds for our scholarships are provided by private donations and by support of our annual luncheon and auction in December. Every year we find many more students who are deserving of our support who we cannot support because of lack of funds. We encourage scholarship donations to: SJSU Alumni, Santa Cruz Area Chapter, P.O. Box 2037, Aptos, CA 95001.
For questions about the scholarship fund and how you may contribute time and/or money, please contact Donna Ziel, Chair of the Scholarship Committee at zield43@yahoo.com.
The tour of the City of Santa Cruz Recycling Center will be rescheduled for late March or early April, 2023.
We are working on scheduling a tour of the Moss Landing Marine Labs and Elkhorn Slough Safari boat trip in May.
On February 29, 2020, we co-hosted a SJSU Alumni Night at the Santa Cruz Warriors. Part of the ticket price covered a donation to our scholarship program.
Meet Our Most Recent Graduate - Marinelle Victorio
When your Scholarship Committee first met Marinelle Victorio during her scholarship interview in spring 2015, we knew we were talking to a truly outstanding candidate. Her academic record at Harbor High School was impressive. Not only did she graduate with a weighted (extra points for Honors courses) grade point average of 4.09, she had also completed the equivalent of 12 semester college units through Advanced Placement courses in her Senior year. She accomplished this while playing on the school softball team and working on weekends to help support her very low income family. But what impressed the Committee the most was her absolute dedication to reach her goal of becoming an oncology nurse.
Marinelle has worked hard throughout her time at SJSU and has acknowledged that she had much to learn about academic expectations at the university level as well as time management. When she was ready to be formally admitted into the Nursing Program as a Junior, she had to wait a semester for an opening in this impacted major. These were all challenges that she has overcome. She graduated with a B.S. In Nursing, cum laude in December! She reports that she will soon take the NCLEX exam to become a licensed Registered Nurse. In the meantime, she is working as a Nurse's Aid at O'Conner Hospital. She expressed her gratitude to our Chapter: "I couldn't have done it without the SC Alumni Chapter's support. I am greatly indebted to your generosity and kindness."
And we are proud to have been able to assist this bright and dedicated young woman to reach her goal.
Career Outreach Day at Soquel and San Lorenzo Valley High Schools.
On Friday, October 18th members of our Santa Cruz Chapter staffed an informational table at Soquel High School for Juniors and Seniors interested in attending San Jose State in the future. We also staffed an informational table at San Lorenzo Valley High School on Monday, November 18th.
We plan to staff additional career days at other local high schools in the County.
All SJSU Alums and family and friends of San Jose State University are welcome to join our area chapter. We were specifically organized to foster San Jose State University, provide social and educational activities for Spartan Alums, and to provide support for academic and Marching Band Scholarships.
Elkhorn Slough Safari -On November 11th, members and their family and friends filled the Elkhorn Slough Safari Boat for an afternoon tour of the Elkhorn Slough. It was a beautiful day on the water and the wildlife on the slough was abundant.
Student Recreation and Aquatic Center tour on October 8th. This is a fabulous facility that provides recreational activites for a large number of SJSU students, Faculty, Staff, and Alumni. It also is the site of Intercollegiate Athletic Women's Swimming and Diving, Men's Water Polo, and Women's Water Polo practices and competitions.
Summer of 2019 chapter activities included a tour of the Day at the Farm Museum in Watsonville; scholarship check presentation to the SJSU Marching Band at their performance at the Wharf to Wharf Race; and our Annual Member's BBQ and Meet Our Scholarship Recipients BBQ: Saturday, June 1st was our annual membership BBQ. We had the opportunity to meet and hear from five of our scholarship recipients about their educational plans for the upcoming year at SJSU. Brian Bates, Executive Director of the SJSU Alumni Association was our guest Chef and also provided all in attendance with a current campus update.
Annual Holiday Party and Scholarship Fundraiser: On December 5, the Santa Cruz chapter of the San Jose State University Alumni Association held its annual Holiday Party and Scholarship Fundraiser. Our silent auction was a success and raised several thousand dollars for our scholarship programs.
SJSU Alumni Night at Santa Cruz Warriors. San Jose State Alumni watched the Santa Cruz Warriors beat the Salt Lake City Stars on Friday night, January 18th. A good time was had by all.
Scholarship Committee interviewed fifteen applicants for our 2019-2020 scholarships to San Jose State University.
Recipients of our continuing and new scholarships were announced by Scholarship Committee Chair, Donna Ziel on May 15th. Go to our scholarship page to see short bios on our new scholarship recipients.
SJSU South Campus New Athletic Facilities Tour
Wednesday, October 24th, SJSU Alumni Association Executive Director Brian Bates and SJSU Athletics Facility Manager Garrett Ton led a tour of the new South Campus Athletics facilities. The new golf complex ($7 million dollars from private donations is considered one of best golf practice facilities in the nation. We also saw the new Women's and Men's Soccer pitch, the six new championship level tennis courts and the Muduballa WTA Championship main court, and the new artificial turf Softball field. They also discussed plans on the soon to be developed football office and team complex and the plans for the Spartan Track and Field and Baseball facilities.
Tour of Canepa Motors, Scotts Valley and Football Viewing Party on Saturday, October 20th
Chapter members attended a private tour of the Canepa Motors on Saturday morning. The tour included the sales floor of classic sports and race cars, the museum of specialized race cars and motor cycles, and the restoration motor shop with clinics from all mover the world.
Later on Saturday night, chapter members had a football viewing party at Tony and Alba's pizza. The Spartan's lost a heart-breaker at San Diego State by three points.
Annual Member's BBQ and Meet Our Scholarship Recipients
On Sunday, June 3rd, we held our annual member's Family BBQ at De LaVeaga Park in Santa Cruz. At this event we had the opportunity to meet a number of our scholarship recipients who told those in attendance about there experiences at San Jose State University this past academic year. The BBQ was put on by the current Board of Directors with the main campus Alumni Association Executive Director Brian Bates being our main Chef at the BBQ.
Chef Brian
2018-2019 Scholarship Recipients
This year our chapter has awarded $20,500 in scholarships to students from Santa Cruz County public high school students and Cabrillo College who are attending San Jose State University this coming Fall semester. Our scholarship committee is chaired by Donna Ziel. Committee members included Carolyn Lewis and Priscilla Brown and new committee members Carol Kreppel, Amanda Gullings (former scholarship recipient) and Michael Bois (former scholarship recipient).
Our scholarship committee have selected five new scholarship recipients who will be attending San Jose State in the Fall. They are:
Odalys Alvarez from Pajaro Valley High School, selected as our Carol Coe Memorial Scholarship. She plans to major in Business Administration.
Brianna Delgado from Santa Cruz High School who plans to major in Nursing.
Angie Mendoza from Cabrillo College who plans to major in Communications Studies
Gabriella Sandoval from Scotts Valley High School who plans to major in Materials Engineering
Aliyahhmae Tefora from Aptos High School who plans to major in Behavioral Sciences.
We also renewed scholarships for thirteen on our continuing scholarship recipients.
Kendra
Melissa
Congratulations to Our 2017-2018 Scholarship Recipients
Three of our scholarship recipients are graduating this school year. Xiaoyan Huang, an Accounting/Finance major graduated in December. Kendra Kannegard, Theater Arts major and Melissa Tracy, Child Development major, are graduating this May. Both Kendra and Melissa have applied to the College of Education to work towards their teaching credentials.
Past Activities:
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Behind the Scenes Tour:
On April 24th, twenty-one chapter members and friends participated in a historical and behind the scenes tour of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. This outstanding tour was led by Ted Whiting and assisted by Jessie Durrant, Archivest for the Beach Boardwalk. This two hour tour took us through support and maintenance areas that support the workings of the Boardwalk. We also received information on the history of the Boardwalk and the daytime workings of the Boardwalk.
SJSU Alumni Association Scholarship Reception:
Members of our chapter attended the main campus's Alumni Association Scholarship Reception to honor the graduating senior scholarship recipients. We are pleased that two of our scholarship recipients will be graduating this May. Kendra Kannesgard, BA Drama, and Melissa Tracey, BA Special Education are both applying to SJSU graduate school in the School of Education. Both plan to become teachers in the near future. Congratulations to both of them.
San Jose State Alumni Night at Santa Cruz Warriors:
Close to 100 SJSU alumni cheered the Santa Cruz Warriors onto a great win over the Agua Caliente Clippers on Saturday night, January 20th. Alumni members in attendance were also rewarded with a resounding rendition of the Star Spangled Banner sung by Spartan Alum Joe Ferraro and cheers lead by Spartan Alum and professional cheerleader Crazy George Henderson. Proceeds from our alumni ticket sales will benefit our scholarship program.
Dave & Cherie Donahue and grandkids
SJSU Women's Basketball Game:
On January 6th, members of our chapter attended the SJSU Women's Basketball game versus New Mexico. It was an exciting game with the Spartan women coming from behind to upset the nationally ranked Lobos (12-1 at the time of the game).
Holiday Party and Scholarship Fundraiser:
On December 7th chapter members and friends enjoyed an great Holiday party and silent auction at the Dream Inn. Over $13,000 was raised to fund our 20-18-2019 scholarship program. We had the opportunity to meet and socialize with nine of our current scholarship recipients. We enjoyed the support from the main SJSU campus Alumni Association Board and Executive Director. Vice President of Development Paul Lanning gave us a campus update and extended greetings from University President Papazian, who was traveling out of the country. We thank the many local donors for their support of our scholarship program through their donations to our silent auction and the purchases by those in attendance. We especially thank Robert Coe and his family for his generous support to the Carol Coe Memorial Scholarship.
Sheridan Bowman, Eric & Denise Buecheler
SJSU Alumni Association Scholarship Reception
Nine of our current chapter scholarship recipients were honored on October 25th, at a SJSU main campus reception hosted by the San Jose State Alumni Association. Chapter President Carolyn Lewis and Scholarship Committee member Priscilla Brown represented our chapter. Over $179,600 was awarded in scholarships with our scholarship recipients receiving $21,000 of that total. One of our Carol Coe Memorial Scholarship recipients, Essy Barroso-Ramirez also received a Dean's Scholarship from the College of Arts and Sciences as well the prestigious CSU Trustee's Scholarship (one awarded per University)
S. Martinelli's Juice Experience:
On October 11th, sixteen chapter members were the guests of Tony Robinson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at S. Martinelli's County Store in Watsonville for a special juice tasting, tour or the storage facility, hosted lunch and educational presentation.
Elkhorn Slough Safari Experience:
Twenty four chapter members and friends explored the Elkhorn Slough on a private charter pontoon boat. It was a fantastic trip with lots of wildlife, including thousands of Terns and many Otters. The weather was almost perfect and the trip was enjoyed by all.
Spartan Football Viewing Party:
On September 16th, members of the chapter met at Tony and Alba's Pizza in Scotts Valley to cheer on the SJSU Spartans vs. University of Utah. Although the Spartans did not win, we had fun and good company while we watched the Spartans.
Wharf to Wharf Viewing Party, July 23rd:
Ten members of the chapter attended the Wharf to Wharf Viewing Event on Sunday, July 23rd. The SJSU PEP Band and Krazy George were there to keep the runners moving and our cheering section very well entertained. This was the 30th year that SJSU was well represented onthe race route. A Big Thank You goes out to the Simpkins Family for hosting the event and providing a continental breakfast of coffee, juice, pastries, and fruit. We also send best wishes to Scott Pierson, 34 year Band Director, as he begins his retirement.
The Chapter was pleased to present a check for $1,000.00 to the band scholarships. It is our pleasure to make such a presentation whenever donations to the band scholarship fund reaches $1,000.00. Thank you to our members for their generous donations.
Members of the PEP Band "Spartan Up after receiving our donation check.
Krazy George & Patsy
Annual Member's BBQ and Scholarship Recipients Introduction, Saturday, June 3, 2017
The chapter held its annual member’s BBQ and meet our scholarship recipients on Saturday, June 3rd at DeLaveaga Park Forty Thieves BBQ area. Family members and guests and scholarship recipients attended. Our continuing scholarship recipients and new scholarship recipients were introduced told us about their experiences at SJSU and/or their backgrounds. It was a beautiful day, with good food, and enjoyed by all in attendance.
Football Viewing Party
On October 21st,eighteen chapter members enjoyed a Spartan Football game viewing party at Tony and Alba's Pizza in Scott's Valley. Unfortunately, the Spartans did not fair well against the San Diego State Aztecs but a good time was had by all.
Holiday Party and Silent Auction, December 7, 2016
The Chapter just concluded another successful Holiday Party and Scholarship fundraiser at the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz. Over eighty members and friends including guests from the Santa Clara Valley Chapter and the SJSU Alumni Association Board made it an enjoyable and profitable evening. SJSU President Mary Papazian had an opportunity to meet the participants and provided us with an update on SJSU. Three of our scholarship recipients were able to join us and also share with us their experiences at SJSU. A special congratulations to scholarship recipient Michael Bois, who will be graduating this Spring semester with a major in Business Administration and Cody Gradone, a Radio TV and Film major. A special thanks to Bob Coe and Darcy Belardi in their help is securing funds for the Carol Coe Memorial Scholarship. Over $13,000 was raised to go into our scholarship and Marching Band programs.
SJSU Alumni Night at Santa Cruz Warriors
The event was held on January 14, 2017, where we watched the Warriors versus Salt Lake City Stars at the Kaiser Permanente Arena. Over one hundred SJSU alumni attended this inaugural event at the Santa Cruz Warriors. Of that, there were 25 chapter members and hopefully, with our outreach efforts that night we will gain additional chapter members. All who purchased tickets through our designated website received a commemorative SJSU Alumni Night Santa Cruz Warriors tee-shirt. The Warriors donated part of the ticket cost to our scholarship program.
Day at the Races: Santa Clara Valley Area Chapter and 8 members of the Santa Cruz Area Chapter enjoyed an outstanding day at the races at beautiful Golden Gate Fields on Saturday, April 1, 2017.
Wine Tasting At Cooper-Garrod Winery and Vineyard Tour was great fun for all attendees. See the May 2017 Coastlines for details.