Highlighting the amazing Administration, Faculty, Classified Professionals, and Students that make up our pirate family.
This month's highlights include:
Devin Varela (Student), Maria G Crisosto Calderon (Classified), Jennifer Kagawa (Faculty), Vanessa Stotler (Admin)
Name: Devin Varela
Role at VC: Student/Student worker for marketing department
Major: Business
Years at VC: 1st Year
Family life: I spend a good amount of time with my parents and younger brother. My younger brother and I both enjoy cooking so we make food and our parents love trying our cooking
Hobbies: Water Polo, Cooking, and Reading
Favorite food: Potato leek soup
Favorite movie: Crazy Rich Asians
Favorite Song: God of Death by Susto
Something Unique about you: I have played water polo for about 10 years and I coach at the high school and club level
Name: Maria G Crisosto Calderon
Role: Basic Needs Specialist
Years at VC: 7 years
Family: Mother of 4 young ladies
Hobbies: Working on my garden
Favorite food: Green Chilaquiles
Favorite Movie: The color purple (the original version)
Favorite Song: Breakdown by Maria Carey
Something unique or interesting about you: I love to Salsa dance!
Name: Jennifer Kagawa
Role: Assistant Professor, ESL
Years at VC: 1.5 years F/T (since Fall 2022)
Family: partner John as well as brother Brad and niece Lili in New York
Hobbies: anything in nature - including hiking, surfing, and birding
Favorite food: Recently made Korean tacos using impossible meat - the best thing I've had in a long time!
Favorite Movie: anything funny and observant with heart. I really liked Booksmart
Favorite Song: It's impossible to choose one song, but some go-to albums are U2's The Joshua Tree and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Something unique or interesting about you: Here are two things: 1. I lived in Vietnam for a few years teaching English to police officers. 2. While living there, I also did improv. It was equally fun and scary and was a great exercise in both trusting people and enjoying the art of play
Name: Vanessa Stotler
Role: Director of Outreach and Marketing
Years at VC: 2 years
Family: 14-month-old daughter and my wonderful husband Jay
Hobbies: I love to cook, I find it so relaxing after a long day. I also love to play piano.
Favorite food: French cooking is my fav but nothing tops Sushi for me.
Favorite Movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Favorite Song: Gravity by Sara Bareilles and No Surprises by Radiohead.
Something unique or interesting about you: I used to do voiceover which I enjoyed so much. I voiced commercials for brands like Huggies and Samsung as well as PSA's for radio.