The Pacific Coast Repertory Theatre‘s joyous production of the appropriately named musical “The Music Man” opens tonight in Pleasanton’s Firehouse Arts Center (4444 Railroad Avenue) at 8:00pm with performances continuing Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm through May 18.
Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” won both the Tony Award and New York Critics Award as Best Musical for its original 1958 Broadway production. The original Broadway production was nominated for an additional three Tony Awards, including Best Director, Best Choreography, and Best Featured Actor in a Musical. The 2000 revival was nominated for eight Tonys, including: Best Revival of a Musical, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, and Best Choreography.
A Free Inside the Show discussion with the actors and directors will take place after the Sunday Matinee performance on May 4th, 2014, which provides theatre lovers can also enjoy a special opportunity to interact with the actors.
Kolb Elementary School Named California Distinguished School
Kolb Elementary School joined an exclusive list of the state’s top schools Wednesday, becoming one of 424 public elementary schools in the State to be named a California Distinguished School.
“I applaud these strong, thriving schools that are making such impressive strides in preparing their students for continued success,” Torlakson said. “This award is well-deserved by these school communities for their enduring dedication to high standards, hard work, and unwavering support.”
Kolb, one of 22 schools in Alameda County to be honored, was named a Distinguished School for the first time in its history. Kolb Elementary opened in August 2011.
Read more…
Dublin High School Wins Big at 2014 Future Business Leaders of America State Leadership Conference
FBLA Awards Ceremony (photo credit: Atul Trivedi)
In a remarkable display of teamwork and determination, Dublin High School students won several state-level awards at the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) State Leadership Conference (SLC).
The conference took place on April 10 through 13 in Ontario, California—about a six hour drive away from the City of Dublin. Students from all across the state competed in business related competitions, ranging from Computer Applications to Business Law to Network Design.
Winners included: Lilian Zhang, placing 2nd in Business Math, Tim Elkana, placing 3rd in Client Service, Justin Lu, placing 6th in Economics, and Lilian Chen, Jessica Ngo, and Justin Lu once more placing 3rd in Banking and Financial Systems. Lilian Chen along with her teammates and the other top five qualifiers will be going to Nashville, Tennessee this summer to compete once more in their respective competitions at Nationals.
Wells Middle and Murray Elementary School Partner to Prepare Parents for Transition to Middle School
Murray Elementary School 5th Grade Parent Night
It was 7:00 PM on a Tuesday night on Davona Drive in Dublin. It was an hour when many young students were completing their homework, a time when some tired parents were returning home from a day of work or a moment to share a meal around the family table. On this night, parents collected in the Multi-Purpose Room at Murray Elementary School. Was there a band concert, fundraiser or PFC meeting? No. On Tuesday, numerous parents and guardians gathered to attend a 5th Grade Parent Meeting. Murray Elementary School Principal Carrie Nerheim hosted an evening that would hopefully enlighten (and hopefully relieve) the parents of the promoting fifth grade class of 2014 that will land at Wells Middle School in August, 2014. Wells Middle School Principal Dr. Kevin Grier was on hand to provide an overview of the middle school experience and to steer a question and answer period for those present.
Regardless of whether families have sent their older children through the system, academic evaluations and statewide testing has radically changed in just the past few years. California has joined the vast majority of states in the union in adopting Common Core Standards and abandoning California Statewide Tests (CST). Though the results won’t be recorded in this first-year evaluation of the system, the Smarter Balanced Assessments will take hold in 2015.
Dublin High Senior Roberta Tyler
Dublin High School senior Roberta Tyler recently met with OneDublin.org to share her story of earning two scholarships to pursue her dream of studying animation at the prestigious Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), the unique challenge of creating an arts portfolio for college admissions and how performing in Dublin High School’s Drama Club helped hone her animation skills.
OneDublin.org: What triggered your passion for animation?
Roberta Tyler: “I’ve always had an interest in movies, our family watches movies together all the time. In my freshman year I took a drawing class, and I had upper year friends in the animation class. They loved animation and recommended I take the class, which planted the seed.
“Dublin High School’s animation teacher Chris Meyer, who went to Ex’pression College in Emeryville, was my junior year teacher. He was a really interesting and inspiring teacher and fueled my interest in animation; I wanted to be like him.”
OneDublin.org: Describe the process of animation.
Tyler: “At this point I’ve only completed small projects, mostly in 3D modeling and 3D animation. I started with 2D animation using a program called Toon Boom Studio. It takes a lot of patience to create 2D hand drawn animation because you have to accept that it is more important to focus on quantity rather than quality in the beginning. When you first start out you have to accept that you won’t be as good as the animators at Pixar, where there are hundreds of people working on every frame, one person doing the rigging, one person doing the modeling, and so on. In the beginning you are doing everything yourself so you can’t put the pressure on yourself to be Pixar, Dreamworks or Disney level. You don’t have the resources.
“In the beginning it is really important to just drive forward and not get caught up in trying to be perfect. If you try to create perfect animations at first, you’re never going to get it.”
by Jennifer Strasser (Dublin High School Class of 2014)
“The Laramie Project” opens this Thursday, April 24 for a four performance run: 4/24 -26 at 7pm and 4/27 at 2pm in Dublin High School’s Little Theatre. Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students.
Savannah Qunitero and Jennifer Strasser
“Hate is not a Laramie Value,” reads a sign right on the outskirts of the town of Laramie, Wyoming; a place defined by a severe anti-gay hate crime. The sign speaks volumes for how residents felt after the brutal beating of a gay university student made national headlines and became the trademark crime associated with this small town. People struggled to get through the traumatic event and the aftermath it left behind.
The Tectonic Theatre Project travelled to Laramie and interviewed the residents, gathering opinions and experiences from all different viewpoints after the tragedy became public. From these interviews, they compiled the play that Dublin High School is putting on for our final show in the Little Theater; it is called The Laramie Project, written by Moisés Kaufman. This show encompasses the viewpoints of friends and family of the victim, Matthew Shepard, as well as the opinions of local priests or ministers, and follows these people through the townʼs grieving period.
Performing at Chicago Symphony Hall
As students we learn something new every day at school. However, there are things we just can’t learn or experience by reading a textbook or listening to a lecture, this is where music comes in. On April 5th, at 2:30 am, the Dublin High School Irish Guard Band met up in the band room, got our bags on the bus, and made our way to the airport to fly out to Chicago. It’s safe to say most students couldn’t sleep the night before or on the plane, all that was on our minds was the fact that in just a few short hours we would be in Chicago, seeing the beautiful buildings and city lights for ourselves, the trip we have been preparing for this entire year.
When we landed, we celebrated in the most logical way possible: with a slice or two of Chicago’s famous deep-dish pizza at Gino’s. After this amazing dinner with the entire band, we made our way over to the John Hancock Building to view the city from 94 stories up. With a 360 view of the entire city, it was hard to soak up the breathtaking image of the beautiful city lights. This was the trip we had all been waiting for, working hard for, for over a year, and there we were, we had finally made it.
Major Worthington and Bree LeMoine
When one visits a bank, it is usually to either place a deposit or to make a withdrawal; earlier this year, however, Dublin High School Transition teacher Bree LeMoine was leading a visit of her students to Patelco as an element of their weekly activities. Transition refers to a post-high school program for special needs students (aged 18-22) which places an emphasis on life skills. During this trip, Ms. LeMoine had a chance meeting with another client in the branch. Major Edward Worthington III noticed this group and was intrigued. He immediately introduced himself to Bree and the students. Maj. Worthington told the students that he was based at Camp Parks and inquired how he and his staff could support their development. Consequently, Ms. LeMoine asked “How may we help you at Camp Parks?” This fast developing friendship spawned a meeting shortly thereafter at the base.
By invitation, Bree and her colleague, Cheryl Phipps attended a meeting at Parks. It was held at the Headquarters. The meeting was very formal and the staff members introduced themselves and explained their respective responsibilities. Bree and Cheryl went on to explain how the Workability program supports the Transition class and further detailed how vocational training is a key element to the further development of their students. The spark was immediate. It was clear that a partnership could be formed. Further, Maj. Worthington could foresee additional partnership opportunities – including the support of the Special Olympics.
You’ll never know who you might meet in a nail salon. Though the conversation may be casual, the impact might be far-reaching. This was the case as DUSD parent Maddie Romero-Salas struck up a conversation with another Tri-Valley parent, Annette Musso. The two mothers shared one thing in common – a child that was impacted across the Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Let’s go back. Last fall, OneDublin.org covered a story centered on Dublin High School sophomore, Matthew Romero-Salas. At the time, his mother, Maddie, was battling breast cancer. As a member of the Pleasanton Chapter Order of DeMolay, Matt wanted to direct a fundraiser that would benefit a local organization. While the Romero-Salas family never utilized their services, the Sandra J. Wing Healing Therapies Foundation received the benefit from an October dinner feed and silent auction held at the Pleasanton Masonic Center. The Foundation provides funds so that cancer patients can experience the immediate benefit of complementary therapies to help alleviate the side effects caused by radiation and chemotherapy.
Gayle Laakmann McDowell
As part of OneDublin.org’s Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Series, we recently spoke with Gayle Laakmann McDowell, a University of Pennsylvania computer science graduate, founder & CEO of CareerCup, and former full-time Google software engineer (and programming intern at Microsoft and Apple during college). Ms. McDowell is also the author of three books targeted at helping candidates secure positions in leading technology companies (The Google Resume, Cracking the Coding Interview and Cracking the PM Interview).
OneDublin.org: What inspired you to pursue computer science in college and as a career?
Gayle Laakmann McDowell: “I actually came from a long line of female engineers. My grandmother is a mechanical engineer, my mom has a PhD in electrical engineering, and two of my three aunts also have engineering degrees. My father and grandfather are also engineers, so engineering is in my blood.
“When I entered high school my mother told me and my sisters that we had to take one computer science class before graduating high school. I fought and fought my mother on this because I had zero interest in computers at the time, but eventually realized I wasn’t going to win this fight. I decided if I had to take programming I might as well take it in my freshman year and get it over with.
“I signed up and ended up really loving the programming class. It was different than what I expected. I expected the class to be a lot of memorization, just like other science classes I had taken before. Programming was very different – more like playing with LEGO when I was a kid. Programming gave me the chance not just to study how problems are solved, but to actually create and build new things, to be really creative. I loved programming from the first week or two of the course, so I kept up with programming throughout high school, built a bunch of games and decided computer science would be my major in college.”
OneDublin.org: What should high school students considering computer science in college expect at the college level, and what can they do in high school to better prepare for college?
OneDublin.org 