Chaparral 2024-2025: The Return of Milestones

Paul Sherman (Music, Visual and Performing Arts) served as principal oboist for performances of Bach's Magnificat and Telemann's Magnificat and was a guest lecturer during Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's Bach Week Festival. Additionally, he was the guest solo oboist for Cal State Fresno's Double Reed Day, where I taught oboists, gave lectures, and performed a solo recital. Paul also served as adjudicator for Glendale Unified School Districts Large Ensemble Festival on March 1. That means he listened to and provided comments and clinics to over 500 young musicians over one day.

Sevana Henry, GCC Alum and daughter of Susan Henry (English) and Tom Henry, graduated from CSUN in Spring 2024 with a degree in Communications Studies.

Sarah McLemore (English) is proud of her son Zach for winning the 2025 LA City Junior Golf Tournament for his age group this March. He played great (+2 total) over two days to get the W in beautiful Griffith Park at Roosevelt Golf Course. Fun fact--Zach's putting and short game instructor is Brennan Amirkhizi who played golf as a student at GCC!

Joanna Parypinski (English) has released several new songs with her band, Guerra/paz, for which she plays cello. Listen here on Spotify.

Diana Rivera (English) shared that her beautiful daughter, Alexandra Garcia, graduated this past December from Sacramento State with a BS in Cell & Molecular Biology with a minor in Chemistry and Forensics.

After 81 years as a Cali girl, Melanie Brown ( Retiree. Student Affairs Office) is moving to her daughter’s in Franklin, Tennessee. She will really miss running into old friends around Glendale and sharing memories and stories about our wonderful days at GCC. She shares: "Y’all be good to yourselves."

Michelle Stonis (History, Social Sciences) earned her post-baccalaureate minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Oregon State University in May 2024.  Thanks to the encouragement of Caroline Hallam (Library), she is also now a History Discipline Lead for the ASCCC Open Educational Resource Initiative (OERI). She has been tasked with building out their Women's Studies OER. She is grateful to my GCC colleagues who have shared their passion for OER over the years.

Aisha Conner-Gaten (Library) and Romy Griepp (Sociology, Social Sciences) were awarded a Full FACCC Scholarship to attend the Great Teachers Seminar in Monterey in August 2025.

Paolo Banaag (Student Services: Academic/General Counseling) defended his dissertation for the CSULB's Educational Leadership Doctoral Program 6 months ahead of my entire cohort and made history by being the earliest one to ever do so in the 15 years of the program.

Ellen Oppenberg and Shogher Bagdassarian ( Retired, DSPS and Retired, Math) co-founded the GCC Retirees Club. The club launched in January of this year, 2025. The purpose of the club is for social, educational and philanthropic purposes. Open to all GCC retirees. Contact Ellen at elleno [at] glendale.edu. Their next activity is on April 17th.