Oh, graduation itself is pretty much the same–it’s the party that follows that’s remarkably different. And the same is true for the grads at Saratoga High. Actually, ours was one of the first graduation parties actually taken off campus (though why they chose a bowling alley, I’ll never know). Prior to that, grad parties were held in the high school gym and decorations and activities were planned by the entertainment commission, a group of students at the school charged with the task of preparing the gym for dances and such.
On a soft-sprung floor in Athlone, South Africa, six professional dancers pink ballet shoe in aluminum wire from the United States are discovering the answers, Led by Claire Sheridan, the founder of Liberal Education for Arts Professionals, an innovative degree program operating out of Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, and by Kristine Elliott, a LEAP graduate now on the faculty at Stanford University, the American student-teachers have won what could be called the Dance For All lottery, Dance For All, a barrier-busting Cape Town initiative, offers hope, life skills and employment to some of South Africa’s most disadvantaged young people through dance, LEAP provides professional dancers in the U.S, with a bachelor’s degree and, for many, a springboard to a second career..
George Kukar’s father, also George, bought the three-acre spot the year Kukar, 31, was born. The family kept livestock there when he was little and Kukar recently has kept real live sheep and goats on the property. The hill has become something of a grown-ups’ clubhouse for Kukar and his buddies, who hold barbecues and bull sessions on the hill that overlooks Coyote-Hellyer Park and provides sweeping views of downtown San Jose. It is a place where Kukar can do some serious thinking – thinking about signs. That is how this sheep thing got started, with a simple sign declaring his love for Jill, who at the time was not his wife and had no intention of ever becoming his wife.
“It can be a workout,” said KoneffKlatt, who has a Russian last name but is proudly one-quarter Mexican, as he pink ballet shoe in aluminum wire dripped sweat but draped a colorful, heavy woolen zarape over his shoulders for the next set, “But I love what we do, I love the country and I love its culture, and Cinco de Mayo is very much a celebration of that culture.”, Indeed, many of the celebrants at the Santa Clara County fairgrounds on Saturday said what the day commemorates — an underdog victory by a scrappy band of 4,500 Mexican fighters over 6,000 professional soldiers sent by France at the Battle of Puebla in 1862 — is less the focus of the day than is an opportunity to show pride in Mexican roots..
Kirschman is also the author of the award winning “I Love a Cop: What Police Families Need to Know”, “I Love a Fire Fighter: What the Family Needs to Know”; and lead author of “Counseling Cops: What Clinicians Need to Know” with retired cops, Mark Kamena and Joel Fay. “Burying Ben: A Dot Meyerhoff Mystery,” which is about police suicide told from the perspective of the psychologist, is her debut novel. Kirschman and her husband, a retired remodeling contractor turned photographer, reside in Redwood City.