 Good afternoon, it's just an honor and a pleasure to speak today on behalf of all the educators in the International Educators Hall of Fame. This is the 25th year, the silver jubilee of this International Educators Hall of Fame. Why do we do it? Because there are so many educators who are unsung heroes. They are often pioneers, they are movers and shakers, they are creators, they are historians and they are humanitarian in nature. So we decided 25 years ago to honor some of the educators who are unsung heroes. We put out the request and people responded. They gave personal accounts to why this person deserved it. What are the criteria? One, you've been in the field of education at least 20 years or you're retired from the field of education and while there you did more than the call of duty. You don't have to say it yourself but people know if you fit that criteria. So many names came in, we never knew we were going to be doing it 25 years later. We've done it in Egypt 5 times, we've done it in Nigeria, West Africa 2 times, we've done it in Memphis, Tennessee, in the Bay Area, in Orange County and we started that many years ago right here in Sacramento and Orange County. So we want to say to everyone, say thank you to those educators that made an impression in your life, that motivated you, that inspired you and that you know in your heart they deserve to be thanked. Have a good day, we'll see you soon and please send us your nominations for people into the International Educators Hall of Fame. If you want to access on our website it is EducatorsHallofthame.org, EducatorsHallofthame.org. Have a good day, we'll see you, visit our website and don't forget to give donations. They help us do what we need to do, honor educators. Hello, my name is Travis Parker. I am co-founder of the Alpha Academy. Alpha Academy is a mentoring group for young men, age 18 or 12 to 18 and our main focus is African American young men and the reason we started the Alpha Academy, there were actually two of us. We learned myself and our fraternity gives scholarships to students and we noticed that we weren't getting as many young men as we were young women and so we had a tutoring session at Valley High School with several students, males and females and that's when we started the Alpha Academy. Then at our first session in South Sacramento we had two young men show up. They were my cousins, I had not seen them before that, well I saw them the day before at a funeral and then after that particular Academy session I never saw them again. They never came back and so we kept showing up to the Academy month after month and eventually the following started to grow and now we get from 30 to 40 young men once a month we do it during the school year from September to May. Formerly I was an educator at Cosumnes River College for 41 years. I coached soccer, cross country and track men and women and I taught contemporary problems of athletes and somebody might say, but what's a contemporary problem of athletes? One problem of some athletes is that they think they're going to make their living in athletics and for the vast majority of people who play athletics in junior high, high school or even college less than 1% of college athletes earn a living in athletics and for that small percent is that due they only do it for a number of years so by the time they're 30, 35 years old they're no longer in that vocation. The other thing I do presently is raise scholarships to give to young students and we do that through the Martha Parker Gospel Concert at Cosumnes River College. Thank you. My name is Samagda Perez and for me it's one of the greatest honors to be inducted into the International Educators Hall of Fame. I think as educators one of the greatest accomplishments or impacts that we can have is when we can help students reach their potential and then follow their careers and see them become excellent professionals. I think for me as an educator one of the most important accomplishments is to be able to talk to the hearts of the students who sometimes believe that they don't have what it takes to be successful in law school and then to guide them and watch them become not only excellent professionals but also to become mentors in those role models that keep young generations in the fields that are so greatly needed to help our communities. So I am very appreciative of the opportunity to be part of this amazing network of educators who put their heart and soul into ensuring that we have a future of young students who will continue to fight for our communities. Thank you. My name is Courtney Tesler and I've been a counselor for 44 years. Most recently I was at Davis Senior High School for 22 years and the last eight I was head counselor but when I initially started working as a counselor I worked with the migrant, the Papago, the Pima and the Navajo Indians in Casa Grande, Arizona. I also worked with disabled students. I was a drug and alcohol counselor. I worked with female offenders and I had a private practice for 15 years. My personal philosophy is that the whole field of counseling and education is very vibrant. There's a lot of opportunities to help students and adults to learn about the world around them and to navigate this world. Everyone has potential to do the best they can and be the best they can. We all have talents. We all have strengths and we all have weaknesses. Sometimes you need that counselor to help you to figure out exactly what those are and to problem-solve and put yourself in the right direction. Advice to young people, I would say to follow your passions, take time to really know what appeals to you, what your talents are. Give back to those who are less fortunate than you. As a world traveler, I try to inspire students to get out of the city they live in and to start experiencing the world and learn about different cultures. I wish to be remembered for the fact that I truly helped a lot of people. I care about people. I'm very genuine in what I've done. I have enjoyed learning about the world around me and I've enjoyed inspiring other people. My name is Willie Portas. I'm from Fresno, California. I was born February 3, 1949. I am an educator artist and I'm here today to enjoy the pleasure of some of the most important people in the world are those who are inducted here with me, to fellowship and to share a few of the things that I've accomplished. First of all, I graduated as a commercial artist, then I attended the University of Akron for Fine Arts. My vocational training was in commercial arts at Howard Vocational High. I finished all my graduate work in California in 2000 and in 1994 and it was 1994 in instructional leadership, a master's in education. I worked for three different school districts, the Century Unified School District. The West Fresno School District where I retired and I was recruited back to work at the Big Picture High School teaching students art that they may one day become professional if they desire it and my desire is to help them become the best that they can be in the visual arts. In conclusion, I hope to inspire these students to be the best they can be and my legacy is really to continue grooming them for the future in the commercial and fine arts because art is an absolute balance between left and right brain and while they figure it is not necessary, it is necessary to balance a child's development so I will continue to help the students throughout my life. Thank you. I live in Davis, California but I worked as a teacher in Sacramento City Unified School District where I retired after 36 years of teaching. I was nominated for the International Educators Hall of Fame by Neil Hollander, a friend who I worked with for two years while serving as vice principal at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento. In 2013 I was inducted into the International Educators Hall of Fame. I was president of the Mexican American Concilio of Yolo County for 18 years while awarding 1,000 scholarships to high school and college students in Yolo County. I started with two scholarships in 1998 and increased the number until over 60 scholarships were awarded each year. Concilio serves 13 high schools and two colleges in awarding multiple scholarships to each school in Yolo County. The following schools were served Woodland High School, Pioneer High School, Cascade High School, Esparto High School, Winters High School, Davis High School, Da Vinci Charter Academy, King High School, Yolo High School, Delta High School, and River City High School. A Woodland Community College and UC Davis were the colleges that we've given scholarships to. The Concilio fundraised over $400,000 to pay for these 1,000 scholarships. I was a teacher for 34 years and a vice principal at Luther Burbank High School for two years during my career. I coached Varsity Soccer at Sacramento High School for 18 years, sending some 50 students to CSU Sacramento for playing soccer at Sac High. I helped them with their college enrollment, financial aid forms, and writing letters of recommendation. Not all graduated, but I know many did. As a special education teacher, all of my students passed the regular high school proficiency test, the same exam that all regular education students had to pass in order to graduate from high school. My special education students qualified to take an easier differential test, but I raised my standards and each student rose to the occasion. This lasted for 15 years until I left Sac High to become an administrator, a vice principal at Luther Burbank High School. Also in Sacramento City Unified. I was very proud of what these special education students accomplished, that is, passing the same test that the regular students did. I have been attempting to close the achievement gap since I started teaching. My passion was to help students who needed the most help. I went the extra mile because that's what I felt they needed. I not only told them I cared about them, but my actions spoke louder than words. I tutored them after school. I made phone calls to their parents because I needed parents support to help their children. I have always wanted to help the underdog. I have always wanted to help the voiceless. My model is, if you ask the right question to the right person at the right time, then anything is possible. There's no such thing as a bad question. I've lived in this, I've lived this model and have helped many along my journey. Now retired, I use the same model in my daily living, still helping people in need along the way. While awarding these scholarships to students, I always tell them to become a good teacher, a good lawyer, a good construction worker or whatever. We have too many mediocre teachers, lawyers, construction workers, etc. Dream big, aim for the stars. If you just hit the lamp post, you're on your way. Don't let anyone tell you you can't do this or become that. With hard work, determination and perseverance, you can succeed. You will meet many people along your life's journey, good and bad. Remember it is the people you meet along the way that a light bulb in your brain will light up. No one succeeds by themselves. You need to recognize these shining lights along the way. Many times you won't recognize the help that someone has given you until much, much later. It's never too late to remember to thank such a person. Finally, don't forget to give back to your community wherever you end up. Meet others the way you want them to treat you or your kids. If everyone would do this, this would be a much better world. Thank you very much. I'm Dr. Jorge Garcia and I'm a Health Sciences Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine at UC Davis. My personal philosophy regarding education is to quote Cesar Chavez si se puede, that if there's education that can be taught, it can be taught to students and if it's done in the right way, they will learn that material. My advice to young people is that they take an inventory on the gifts and the talents they have and that they think very carefully about where they can best utilize those gifts and talents to hopefully find some mentors that will help to guide them on how to best use that. Some of the best pieces of advice that my mentors gave me was that you should envision your ideal job. So with as much detail as you can, create the job that you would love to do, that you would do for free, that becomes your roadmap for success. And so then it's just a matter of asking for directions, asking people how do I get there? What are the steps that I need to take? What are the experiences, the knowledge, the skills that I need? And then another beautiful piece of advice I got that if you want to be a winner, you join a winning team. So again, find the place that will set you up to succeed. And what I want to be remembered for, I hope to be remembered as a physician educator, as a person who loved and encouraged his patients and his students. And so I hope that I'll be able to make a few physician educators like myself over the years. I have been able to see some of my students go on to become professors. So that's been one of the greatest joys of my life. Thank you. Jack and Richard met at Eagle Rock High School in Los Angeles, California, 1947. They remained the closest of friends for the rest of their lives. Their parents were working class people. They learned from their parents the importance of always working for the underdog. Our parents were strong admirers of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. We both found evidence that we had some Native American ancestry. With all these things in common, including the Democratic Party, it wasn't hard for Jack and Dick to find interesting issues to fight for and their lives developed. Jack and Richard were also musicians. Jack played trombone and Richard the piano. Their interest in the blues, boogie and Dixieland and progressive jazz led to the creation to forming a jazz group at high school. The interest in jazz led to a great respect for the contributions from African Americans. They found many sources of information that helped them understand and fight the dangers of McCarthyism. They walked precincts in 1952 in support of Adelaide Stevenson and became active in the South Pasadena Democratic Club. At that point, they were 18 years old. Jack and Richard went to Glendale Community College. Jack got a scholarship to USC and Richard went to California State University. Jack earned a PhD in anthropology and Native American studies. Richard a degree in history. Jack Forbes is the author of 17 books and many articles. He's one of the foremost experts in the world on Native American history and culture and a great advocate along with Richard for the curriculum in our public schools to better represent all of minorities as an intricate part of the story of America. Jack was responsible for the establishment of a Native American studies department at UCD. DQU was based upon the vision of a Penn Indian University drawn up by Jack. Richard taught classes and participated in the early movement for the establishment of DQU. Richard developed perhaps the first Native American Chicano studies class in the public schools of California at Davis High School. Both Jack and Richard never stopped working together for fair history standards in our schools and the rights of all peoples. Richard was a classroom teacher for 51 years in Los Angeles, Davis, UCD and Solano College. He also has two books of poetry. Thank you very much. I'm just 94, but my sister is 98, yeah. My sister, she's the oldest of, there were three of us. I had a good education and it was from a lot of education you get from the recreation department because we had, the recreation department was right across the street. Oh, West Oakland, that was a long time ago though. My legacy to the children now, learn all they can from their teachers and the recreation directors too because the recreation directors work with the mothers too. They work together, you know, the recreation and the schools all work together. Oh, and don't forget the church too, church, it doesn't matter what church, they're going to learn about one famous man and that's Jesus. So that's important too. Greetings. I am a Laidrian Mac and I am an early childhood specialist. I spent my early years as a teenager knowing that I wanted as a career to be a child development person. I always wanted to be in that field, so when I went off to college I decided I needed to know everything there was to know about very young children and I spent those years in college learning everything about the development of very young children and the kinds of areas that were important to their growth. I taught preschool for a couple of years and after that I taught college students, particularly college students who were interested in going into the field of early childhood education. This was probably one of my joys that I could encourage and support the needs of teachers of very young children. I later spent 15 years as the manager for education services for the Sacramento County Head Start program and I spent 15 years there also teaching teachers and teaching teachers throughout California and Fairbanks, Alaska for a short period of time. I also found at one point that I was invited to be part of a team to evaluate the credentialing program of one of the state colleges in the state of California. I was invited by the state credentialing office and I discovered that the kinds of things that I wanted for teachers of early childhood children was exactly what teachers were learning in their college experience. It was important for me to recognize what developmental areas the teachers need to support their learning and to support the work that they wanted to do. I also decided that as a retired person, how would I support the field of early childhood education? I have done that through professional organizations, specifically child development organizations. I have supported those organizations all over the country. But I also am finding now that there are other things that I think are becoming just as important to me. And that is the need to make sure that young people are being registered to vote, particularly young African American girls who may not think that they have anything that they can pursue. I need to get to those young women in our community to make sure that they realize that they have many options, but they must register, they must vote. And I expect to work in that area for the next election. I am also very fortunate, blessed to have some grandchildren that my husband and I spend lots of time with. And we want to make sure that they understand the reasons for voting. They're young now, but we want them to understand those reasons for voting. And we want them to understand the importance of service. So although I am retired from the field of child development, I am certainly in the area of teaching and training and loving helping our children become a part of this American scene. We all have our ups and downs, ways to deal with them and to bounce back. Bouncing back with community and resilience to work for me is a title of my book published last year by Amazon Books. I grew up in the Yakima Indian Reservation, surrounded a ton of up to Washington, over 100 Japanese immigrant families were farming on reservation land. Before immigrating to the Yakima Valley, my father was trained as a carpenter, including an apprenticeship in Japan's imperial palace in Tokyo. When this became known, the immigrant community called on my father to supervise building the auto-turbannics to the Waputa Buddhist temple needed for community activities. During the winter season, many farmers came to help, but with the spring planting season, I had to remain with a few townspeople. Our family got overgrown with weeds. Then one day, 50 farmers showed up harvesting root crops, trucking the harvest to the packer. My parents were very grateful, but their thanks were met by their comment that, you've been doing plenty to help us, it's our turn to help you. This is community. Community is people helping each other when one gets down, the other is pitch in. This lesson became part of my work, my outlook on my life, my teaching starting, starting the graduate program and community development in Asian American Studies. I have continued teaching and making other contributions to 25 years after retiring. These include facilitating the Central Valley partnership involving 150 immigrant groups from Mexico, Laos, Cambodia, Russia, and the Azores, the real development leadership network with real leaders of Native Americans, Latin, Latino, and African Americans through the country, and teaching a UC summer community course in Japan that put UC students working on community projects in the Kyoto-Osaka area. This is a book of my memoirs that includes many of the stories that I had hinted at in my discussion. So I'm Carl Mack. I've had a really interesting career related to education, and basically my parents, I was the oldest of three boys, and my parents really impressed us with the need to get an education. I was resistant to it in the beginning, but after spending some time in the service during the war in Vietnam, I realized how important it was to get an education. And upon my return home, I was recruited to attend the University of California, Berkeley, and with that opportunity, I took advantage of it, and I finished my bachelor's, my master's, and my PhD from UC Berkeley. Probably the most significant contribution that I feel that I've done in my life is I spent 22 years as a public school superintendent. I think part of my success, I believe, was that I had spent time as a manager and a consultant to various industries and companies and different types of organizations in the community. And so I knew a lot about management and running organizations and companies, but I did know about the ups and downs of being a superintendent, and I found it most inspiring and important work that I've ever done in my life. And part of the reward that I got was that I was able to see students who graduated from high school actually get enrolled at the local university, University of California Davis and Cal State Sacramento. And those students, a most interesting experience that I've had throughout my life is something like this. I would go and get lunch, and I would be at the, I don't know, it could be the Burger King or a restaurant, and some student would come up to me and say, or some person would come up to me and say, hey, aren't you Carl Mack? You were, you know, and I say, yes, well, you're the superintendent of my school district. And so I would say, wow, that's interesting, how's your life been? And they said, well, after I finished grant high school, I was admitted to San Jose State and so was my wife, and we both graduated from there. And now we're both attorneys because we finished law school and we're practicing law. And I can just tell you countless stories of me running across people who finished the schools in the district where I was superintendent. And I've actually had meaningful lives and are significant contributors to our society. And I feel proud that I was able to serve in that role. Sarah Hutchinson, Cherokee was born in Claremont, Oklahoma. She came to UC Davis as a Native American Studies faculty member in 1970, and her tenure with the Native American Studies program spanned almost 25 years. As one of the founding faculty in the Native American Studies program, she was the only woman during the formative period of the academic program. As such, she provided a unique balance to the other amazing faculty who shared her drive and dedication in building Native American Studies into a rigorous academic program. From the early days, Sarah pushed to build a solid academic curriculum and a critical mass of students so that the fledgling Native American Studies program that was tucked into the Department of Applied Behavioral Science could become its own Native American Studies department. As an educator, Sarah's teaching style was creative, holistic, and interactive. She recognized each individual student's best learning style and made sure that her courses supported and challenged her students. Classes always included both traditional and modern texts, themes, and perspectives. She was especially emphatic that students learned the value of seeking out primary sources in their research, including the preservation of oral histories, Native languages, and tribal traditions. She taught students interview techniques, audio recording, and transcription, and encouraged videography as that technology became more accessible. Research and writing were two elements. She pushed elements to master not just for academic excellence, but for the preservation of our cultures. Over the years, dedication and commitment to the Native American Studies program was manifest in many creative ways by the founding faculty. For example, when the program was threatened because of low class enrollments, Sarah initiated a course enrollment recruitment plan that included building a bridge with the UCD Athletics Department so that athlete scholars would know about the offerings and the great faculty that Native American Studies offered. It didn't hurt that she also sent homemade sweetbreads to the coaches and faculty there, along with course flyers. Her lifelong love of college football and UCD football in particular was very well known. Sarah had no problem engaging the coaches and players to facilitate their support to Native American Studies. It was a very creative solution that helped students get needed credits and Native American Studies to grow through a tough period of time. Besides teaching, challenging, and engaging courses, Sarah invited Native American leaders, activists like Dennis Banks and many other elders to speak to her classes. Sarah provided hands-on learning experience in the outside community as well. For example, she brought students along when she attended the Thanksgiving sunrise ceremonies on Alcatraz Island. Sarah also strongly encouraged civic engagement by Native American students, often encouraged students to become involved in student government, political advocacy, or campus protests for human and civil rights. Sarah was a unique faculty member because she also brought her professional counseling skills to a fledgling Native American Studies program and a UC campus with very few Native American students. Her professional skills as a marriage and family counselor served the program well and she was often sought out when students were struggling with personal or family issues. And without a doubt, Sarah often became a mediator when there were disagreements between faculty. Her doors were always open both on campus and at her home just north of campus on Oak Avenue. Countless students and others sat on her back porch under the annual canopy of large leafy ground vines and benefited from her teaching, counsel, and wisdom. Students, colleagues, and many others on campus today are truly fortunate to have had Sarah Hutchinson teach, counsel, and we all continue to benefit from her great dedication to helping create a strong and lasting Native American Studies program at UC Davis. Thank you. Hello, my name is Holly Cooper and I teach at the law school here at UC Davis School of Law and I've been teaching for about 20 years and we teach students about prisoner rights. We educate students about how to defend the rights of prisoners, immigrants who are also detained, and we also work on the juvenile justice system. And so the students, I've probably educated over 100 students who are now lawyers who are fighting for social justice and that's kind of me in a nutshell. So thank you for this opportunity and this award and hopefully we can continue to educate our youth to empower incarcerated. Thank you very much. My name is Doris Mangrum and I was inducted into the International Educators Hall of Fame in 2018. I'm a social justice advocate who's worked on behalf of people whose lives have been impacted by incarceration, their children and their families and their communities for 35 years. I'd like to talk about the importance of leaving legacy. Our days are numbered and we should be living our lives as if our last one could happen any day and it should be important that we don't worry so much about possessions but the quality of our lives. And in doing so, it's important for us to do a few things and I believe that we should do, do not try. If try is in your vocabulary, it should be only to try longer, try harder and try until we get it done. And we must convert the storms of opposition into our winds beneath our sails and the sails beneath our wings however that one goes. And so we should find ourselves and make a decision. Understand that it's never too late to do the right thing. It's never too late for your dreams to come true. The other thing that you want to do is to create impeccable boundaries with friends, with associations, with things that you do, with choices that you make. When you create those impeccable boundaries, it will impact the legacy that you leave. One of the crucial things is to not allow people to stand in your way, in the middle of your dreams. If someone is saying to you that you cannot do a particular thing, step over them, step under them, step around them, but move forward. So understand that because our days are numbered and the most important one is the one that we are going to have at the end when it's all said and done, what people say about us, it's important to remember those things. So I hope that you will create the legacy that you want and that your life will be a quality one and that everything that you have dreamed of, you will have it and that you will convert your storms into opportunities and great things to happen for you as you move forward. Again, my name is Doris Mangrum, Correctional Educator for 35 years. Hello, my name is Kevin Russell Gibbs and I just want to tell you a little bit about my story, my journey in life and as you all know, everybody has one but I just want to give you a brief synopsis of mine. I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, went to Catholic schools up until the 9th grade. My family moved to Georgia, Columbus, Georgia to be exact and went to my first public school and when I got there I was really amazed because most of the people in my high school were people who wanted to go to college and that was very different and especially people of color. There was a pride in the South that was very manifested in the character of the people. So obviously that fire caught on with me and I went into the United States Air Force did 20 years, 6 months in a day, retired. After that I've been an entrepreneur ever since. I am a pastor, I'm a chaplain and also I am a businessman. I have a business which is called a BPA, business professional administrator and I do the same thing as AAA, give people license plates and stickers and stuff like that so they don't have to stand those long DMV lines. I've owned a mortgage company and a consulting company and so many other things I've done but if I could leave you with one thing it would be this, don't be defined by your culture or your ethnicity. You can be anything you choose to be because you're a leader. Leaders are not made, leaders are born. They just don't know it at the time until they're confronted with a situation that brings that leadership out in them and I want to say to you don't be defined because you may have been poor when you grew up or your skin color, your pigmentation in your skin. Many people define themselves that way but you shouldn't because what you are is not your pigmentation. What you are is not your upbringing. What you are is not what people say about you. What you are is what you desire to be. What's intrinsic in you and that should be the thing that you should zero in on and focus on and do all you can to make that sharpen those skills so you can be the best at what you do. I like to think of myself that way and I didn't get there alone. There were people who helped me along the way so don't begrudge people who try to help you get where you need to be. You have to know, first of all you have to figure out what it is that you want to be. You have to know who you are. Once you define who you are and where you want to go then you will begin to associate yourself with people who are in that particular field or mindset that they can encourage you on your journey. So you have to be wise as well. You have to align yourself with people who are going in the same direction that you are going. If you want to be a lawyer you don't spend a lot of times with people who want to be counselors although being a lawyer somewhat is like a counselor but more specific than that. I want you to understand that in this journey what we call life and that's exactly what it is. You never know where you're going to end up but I tell you what if you keep your hand in God's hand and you stay on the straight and narrow you will accomplish your dream. My name is Albert Wilson. I have retired from the Air Force 20 years and 6 months, 24 days, 3 hours, 35 minutes and 40 seconds. Retired at the age of 38, graduated from high school and excelled in electronics. While in the Air Force I served in Germany for a year and a half, two and a half years in Italy and taught the Italian air to ground communication and mobile communication for the armed forces. I spent three years in Turkey on a special mission regarding invasions in the Middle East and also I was called to duty in Vietnam and also in Thailand. I spent well over two years there and also a year in Korea. My last overseas assignment was the Philippines of a chief engineer of the Armed Forces Radio and TV service worldwide. I controlled Channel 8 and covered the Apollo mission back in the late 1900s. My last assignment was in Hollywood for four years during the program for the Armed Forces worldwide recording sport package information from the White House and distributed to the Armed Forces around the world. Once I retired from the military I proceeded to learn license in the state of California for real estate and marketing. Governor Duke Majin appointed me as chairman of the Martin Luther King Holiday Foundation prior to any state being one to celebrate the birthday California was first under my chairmanship along with Governor Wilson. I also built the largest health club in the state of California over 150,000 square feet under one roof with a full Olympic size pool tennis and I'll set up training for small businesses and incubator how to be successful in America to own your own business and be very successful. I've taught well over 150 different businesses very proud to be a part of the international coalition for education under Dr. Pat. I'm the chairman of the board and have been for over 33 years. Thank you very much.