OneDublin.org

DUBLIN, CA–One of the pleasures of contributing to OneDublin.org is the opportunity to meet highly motivated young people and inspiring teachers. While nothing can replace the enthusiasm of students that have the whole world ahead of them, every so often you meet one that may someday change the world. We’ve encountered very few like 2018 Dublin High School graduate, Neil Bedi. He followed a full track of academics through, Green Elementary, Fallon Middle School and ultimately, DHS. Through a chance discussion while he was putting in volunteer hours at the Dublin Partners in Education office, we sat down to discuss his long-term goals. It was a revelation. His focus and maturity were evident. But the truly enlightening portion of the conversation was to understand his outlook on life – outside of his own.

Mr. Bedi departed this weekend for his next adventure. He will enroll in an accelerated seven-year medical education program (SMED) at Boston University. In this circumstance, he will complete two years of undergraduate work, slide into a modular program in year three and then transition into four years of medical school. As one would imagine, this unique program that is layered with so much rigor is open to only a small subset of students from across the country. However, Neil seems to have embraced this challenge and feels confident that he can place his own stamp on the experience. We sat down and continued our conversation.

OneDublin.org: First off, tell us about your experience promoting up through Dublin High School. Please share some of the highlights. Read more…

DUBLIN, CA–With all due respect to Thomas Wolfe, “you can go home again.” In 2015, we completed our “Difference Makers” series with a profile on Tim Sbranti. At the time, he was concluding his career at Dublin High School to become a Deputy Chief of Staff for U.S. Congressman Eric Swalwell. It seemed logical the former longtime City of Dublin Mayor would support another Dublin High School graduate as Mr. Swalwell was ascending to Washington D.C.

Dublin High School Athletic Director Tim Sbranti

But an itch needed to be scratched as a rather unique opportunity became available – the position of Athletic Director at DHS. At the time of our initial profile, we learned that Mr. Sbranti had a passion of sports and he led his expertise in tennis, basketball and volleyball. As the academic year is now commencing, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to sit down with him to discuss this new career adventure.

OneDublin.org: In your estimation, what is the state of Dublin High School Athletics?
Read more…

DUBLIN, CA–Our next Life in College profile takes us to Southern California and UCLA where Dublin High School Class of ’17 alum Pranav Singh is currently pursuing a BA in Linguistics and Computer Science.

OneDublin.org: What do you have to say to high schoolers who are starting the process of college applications?

Pranav: “Be sure of yourself. In applications, focus on conveying who you truly are. The admissions decisions are determined by one word: belonging. They have their own, ever-changing idea of what type of student will belong to their campus, so even though you won’t know ever know why, you’ll end up where you should end up. Trust me.

“College is the scariest thing in the world until you set foot on campus. Every new journey will present you with a new ‘scariest thing in the world.’ Take them as they come, and attack everything head-on. Don’t be scared of anything.”

Read more…

DUBLIN, CA–On a sun-kissed Saturday morning, numerous Dublin residents and dignitaries gathered to witness the ceremonial opening of the newest school site in the Dublin Unified School District – Cottonwood Creek School. Located off of Fallon Road and Jordan Ranch, Cottonwood is the newest Kindergarten through Eighth grade (K-8) campus serving the school district. Initially, it will incorporate grades through the seventh until 2019-2020 when it expand to include eighth grade students.

While the opening was cherished with much fanfare, Dublin Mayor David Haubert went to great lengths to articulate that the fruition of this project was a product of four years of hard work between the City of Dublin and the Dublin Unified School District. Under the leadership of former Superintendent Steve Hanke and the sitting Board of Trustees, it was evident that there would be a critical need for an additional school site that could provide scalability – up to and including the ability to house students at multiple grade levels. Read more…

DUBLIN, CA—Ms. Allyson Lightbody has been teaching mathematics at Eleanor Murray Fallon Middle School for more than a decade. Ms. Lightbody completed her degree in mathematics from California State University, East Bay in Hayward. “My first teaching experience was homeschooling my children for about 6 years,” she recalls. “I later moved on to teach through the state of California, which I’ve been doing for the past 13 years.”

Fallon Math Teacher Allyson Lightbody

Ms. Lightbody joined Fallon as a mathematics teacher in 2007, first teaching in room F4. Three years later, she moved to room J4—a room which her students have fondly associated her with ever since. For the 2018-19 school year, she will be teaching Math Course 3 (eighth-grade math), Algebra, and Geometry at Fallon.

Even though I visited Fallon on Monday’s Teacher Work Day, this passionate, dedicated, and caring teacher took the time out of her busy schedule to sit down with me for an interview. Here, Ms. Lightbody shares more about her passion for math, her teaching philosophy, and the importance of getting the basics right. Read more…

Camille Chabot in Paris

DUBLIN, CA–Our latest Life After College profile closes the circle on Dublin High School Class of ’13 alum Camille Chabot (who has shared her story several times through high school and college). Camille’s public battle with cancer not once, but twice, is an important part of her story – but is not the whole story. Since we last spoke with Camille, after she graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a BS in Liberal Studies, she has gone on to complete teacher’s college (also at Cal Poly) and land a teaching job in Paris. We recently caught up with Camille to learn more about her life after college.

OneDublin.org: You finished teacher’s college at Cal Poly – congratulations – where will you be teaching next year?

Camille Chabot: “I’ll be teaching English to 3 to 5 year olds at the Ecole Internationale Bilingue (which is an international bilingual school) in Paris for at least one year. It’s a pre-school through high school for French students, with multiple campuses around Paris (I’ll be in the 8th arrondissement).”

OneDublin.org: How did you find an opportunity in Paris? Read more…

DUBLIN, CA–Our Life in College Series takes us to UC Riverside, where Dublin High School Class of 2016 alum Anaswar Jayakumar is pursuing a major in mathematics. We caught up with Anaswar to learn more about his college journey.

OneDublin.org: Why did you select UC Riverside? What was the decision process?

Anaswar Jayakumar: “I selected UC Riverside mainly because I wanted to stay close to home, yet be able to fully embrace the college experience. I also chose UC Riverside because, like all UCs, it has a strong science and engineering program.”

OneDublin.org: What is your major and why?

Anaswar Jayakumar: “My major is applied mathematics. I chose applied mathematics because math was a subject that I was good at in high school.” Read more…

Dr. Giada Gerboni

As part of our Women in STEM Series we recently spoke with Dr. Giada Gerboni who was a featured speaker at TED2018, “The incredible potential of flexible, soft robotics”. Dr. Gerboni received a BE and MS degrees in biomedical engineering from the University of Pisa and a PhD in biorobotics from The BioRobotics Institute of Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy. Dr. Gerboni is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, in the Collaborative Haptics and Robotics in Medicine (CHARM) Lab.

OneDublin.org: How did you get interested in engineering?

Dr. Giada Gerboni: “I’ve always done well in technical and scientific courses. I originally wanted to study medicine but realized that while I didn’t want to be a doctor, I enjoyed the technology that helps doctors. That interest led to biomedical engineering. What I’m doing now, robotics for surgery, is applying technology to medicine in order to help the surgeon be more precise.”

Read more…

ORLANDO, FL–Earlier this summer we had a blast reporting from Florida at the opening of Toy Story Land and along the way met some cool Cast Members. We recently circled back with a Cast Member and recent graduate of the Disney College Program about her experiences being part of the opening of Toy Story Land. Mary Kathryn Phillips earned a Bachelors degree in Television and Film at The University of Alabama before entering the Disney College Program.

Mary Kathryn Phillips in Toy Story Land

OneDublin: What attracted you to apply to the Disney College Program?

Mary Kathryn Phillips: “I found out about the Disney College Program during my last Spring Break in college. My best friend and I celebrated Spring Break at Walt Disney World during our last year in college. We ended up speaking to many Cast Members who thought we were Cast Members enjoying a day off because of our energy and personality. Because of how we presented ourselves and our enjoyment of life, we had Cast Members recommending we apply to the Disney College Program.

“We also heard from Cast Members how much they loved the Disney College Program. Because of the timing I ended up applying on one of the very last days before applications closed and found out within a week that I’d been accepted, despite being really sick during my phone interview. I was relieved, I was honored, I sat down crying!” Read more…

DUBLIN, CA–A few years ago we profiled Hania Guiagoussou after she was awarded Oracle Duke’s Choice Award for her Java-based water saver project. Fast forward to 2018 and Hania has just completed her first year of college at Sciences Po Reims (France) where she started a dual degree Sciences Po / Columbia University program, with the unique combination of political science and computer science. We recently spoke with Hania as part our popular Life in College series of articles (over 80 Dublin High School alum have been profiled).

OneDublin.org: How did you decide on a joint degree program?

Hania Guiagoussou: “After the Canadian election, when I was doing a lot of research on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, I found out that his father [and former Canadian Prime Minister] Pierre Trudeau went to Sciences Po. I discovered that there were Sciences Po alumni from all over the world including most of the French Presidents. I became super interested in Science Po when I learned the school has joint programs with Berkeley, UBC and Columbia.

“I had to work really hard to convince my parents about how cool and enriching it would be to spend two years in France, improving my French and learning a new culture, and then coming back to New York for Columbia. After getting into the school my parents said yes!”

OneDublin.org: Your combination of majors is really cool and unique. What led you in that direction?

Read more…