SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY
Monty Monthly Volume VI |Edition I | April 2015 Issue
Celebrating SDSU Circle K’s 59th Birthday!
Contents Letter from the President 2 Meet the Secret Service Team 3 (Secret) Service Projects 5-7 Socials 8 District Convention 10 Family Competition 11 Member Highlights 12-13 Senior Recognition 15-18
Secretly follow our every move… SDSU Circle K (Page and Group) @sdsucirclek
Sdsucirclek.com
Letter from the Editor Hi everyone! I’m super thankful to be your Public Relations Chair this year and I want to say a big thank you to Imani and Hershey for guiding me through my first newsletter. And thank you everyone that helped write articles and contributed to this! GOOD LUCK on your finals!!! I can’t believe how fast this year has gone by. Wishing you all a happy summer! PS If you’re in the Bay or in Vermont this summer, let a homie know. J Love, Sam Pfau
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Letter from... The President Hello … everyone! My name is Melissa Farlow and thank you for electing me as your 2015-2016 President! I have always dreamed of being president and now all my dreams are true! My board is totally 10/10 koala tea and they know how to hustle. We set reasonable goals and we go hard with them. Congratulations to this year’s seniors, Stephanie Lozano, Mariah Adams, Jessica Gutierrez, Nadia Inzunza, Lisa Kanemori, Dustin Cole, Jamille Cabacungan, Gerald Biando, and especially to Yvonne Velasco and Jake Wong. I hope to bring honor to you all and thank you for your years of service with us. Come back and visit the little people when you're rich and famous! Also thank you to last year’s board, you guys worked so hard and set the standards high with all of your accomplishments. I hope you all attend End Of The Year Banquet (Friday 5/8) so we can celebrate all the accomplishments of the year! I'll miss you all over the summer and I hope you have good breaks! Catch me here in San Diego interning at the Zoo and with Traveling Stories! See you next Fall! HAGS, Melissa Farlow
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Introducing the Secret service 2015-2016 SDSU Circle K Board! The President President: Melissa Farlow
The Secret Service Agents: Vice President of Administration: Vivian Nguyen Vice President of Service: Sharanee Sytha Treasurer: Andrea Steele Secretary: Simi Kakwani Fundraising Chair: G-Bus Aguilar Historian: Kristoff Aragon Kiwanis Family Chair: Kevin Nhim MD&E Chair: Brennan McDonough MRP Chair: Gabriel Hernandez Public Relations Chair: Sam Pfau Social Chair: Francis BanaNa Spirit Chair: Zsoli Reynolds Technology Chair: Gautam Nair
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SERVICE PROJECTS
TABLE TOP BOOKMARKS
On April 6th, the first day back from Spring Break, we had a bunch of people come out for our Table Top Bookmark making event. It was a nice, sunny day and it was absolutely wonderful to see everyone again. There was an amazing turnout despite it being the Monday following spring break. There were a lot of bookmarks made and people had a blast; there were lots of smiles and laughter! This table top event was such a great way to ease everyone back into service after spring break. It really allowed people to just bond and have fun while doing service! We had new members and old members there so it was pretty cool to see everyone. The bookmarks are going to be given to our Builder’s Club and they’re definitely going to love them! All of the bookmarks made were super creative and cute, so A+ to everyone that helped out. Overall, it was a great event. Written by Sharanee sytha (Pictured on left with zsoli reynolds)
STORM DRAIN STENCILING
“Ew, cleaning up storm drains? I’ll pass…” is what you were probably thinking. But actually, it was not like that at all! This service project was a chance to help the environment (mainly aquatic animals), one storm drain at a time. First, we were divided into groups and assigned to particular storm drains around the neighborhood. Along the way, we picked up trash to help beautify the neighborhood and to make sure that these items (especially paper and plastic) would not find their way into the drains. Why? Because the trash will end up in oceans and can be harmful to fish if consumed. What we did was paint over old storm drains and stenciled in “NO DUMPING GOES TO OCEAN” with bright blue spray paint & a pretty thinkBLUE wave. I enjoyed the service project because it was pretty cool seeing our results from the stencils and how eye catching it was for drivers and pedestrians! Written by Diana Nguyen
Service, Leadership, Fellowship!
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Service Projects continued THE PRINCESS PROJECT
The Princess Project was such a great experience. Everyone who attended thoroughly enjoyed it and hopes to make it an annual service project. When we got there we were given cute aprons, and separated into different jobs. I was on dressing rooms with Sam and Megan. We helped the girls into dressing rooms after they collected a few dress options with the help of their personal stylists (which were Vivian and Kayla’s job). We helped them get into their dresses, told them how beautiful they looked in each dress, and helped them find new dresses when their favorite choices didn’t fit. We were also constantly re-stocking dresses. The girls would then leave the dressing room with their new dresses to find accessories with the help of Sharanee and Victoria. The girls were all super excited to get their free prom outfits and happy to share their excitement and the details of their prom plans with volunteers. The whole experience was really cute and gratifying. The shift was super busy and hectic, but really fun. We also got free t-shirts and pizza!
Written by Andrea Steele (Pictured on left with Whitney Oleman)
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KIWANIS ONE DAY
Written By Gautam Nair (pictured on left with melissa farlow)
Kiwanis One Day was a great experience in which we had the opportunity to help out the residents of New Entra Casa - a home for women that have been released from prison and are attempting to start a new life for themselves and their families! We scraped and sanded rust off of an old fence, and then put a fresh layer of primer over it to prepare it for a coat of paint, making the front of the home look like eye-candy instead of an eye-sore! I thoroughly enjoyed this event. Not only was the work enjoyable because we saw immediate, gratifying results, but also because we had the chance to connect to various members of the Kiwanis family that we don't see as frequently as we would like! Our members got to meet students from Patrick Henry Key Club such as Jonathan Chau - their president! We also reconnected with many of the members from the GAG Kiwanis. After the job was complete, we all gathered to take multiple selfies and a hot group picture (I was in the back... you can't ever see me in these pics dude... #tallpeopleproblems)
RELAY FOR LIFE
On Saturday, April 25th, Circle K participated in Relay for Life which was a 24 hour event put on by the school. Despite the cold, rainy weather, a group of us showed up and started putting up our tent and our fundraisers. People stopped by and hung out for a while, while some walked the track. It was really great to see so many people show up even though it kept raining periodically. As it got later, everyone started layering on the sweatshirts and blankets. There were a lot of great talks and definitely a lot of laughs. The highlight of Relay for Life was probably when Jake, Patrick, Francis, Gabe and I did zumba to Lizzie McGuire songs at 1am. There were actually a few of us that managed to stay up the whole 24 hours and then Sam, Gabe, Patrick and I were able to get a not so great view of the sunset, which was nice. Overall, it was a really great event and it definitely created some great memories!
Written By Simi Kakwani
APSA FASHION TALENT SHOW
Written by Kevin Nhim (Pictured on left with Yvonne Velasco)
The Fashion Talent Show is a great event hosted by the Asian Pacific Student Alliance, or APSA. This event helps support the movement to break Asian stereotypes and connect the artists to the community. With acts from people such as Jenny Yang, Alexa Yoshimoto, and Tribal Theory, it was sure to be a great show! There were about five volunteers, and what we did before the show started was help set up by advertising where the event was, carrying the equipment, and putting programs on chairs. When the show started, people were delegated different tasks such as checking tickets or ushering people to their seats, and it was really hectic because this year’s turnout was great! After the rush hour was over things slowed down and we got to enjoy the acts. I was really glad that I got to volunteer for this event because it really helps empower the Asian community in areas such as entertainment or the arts.
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La Jolla Sunset Hike
As the new Social Chair for the 2015-2016 term, I want to promote healthy living and San Diego exploration so we decided to check out the beautiful trails of Torrey Pines. Once we arrived, we all walked along the beach to get to the actual trailhead which was up a small hill. It was like something out of a Baywatch episode with all the beautiful Circle K’ers. We decided to check out the easiest trail called “Guy Fleming Trail” where we ended up at a dramatic spot that overlooked the beach/Pacific Ocean. This was perfect because we still had ample time to check out the next trail up the hill before the sun completely set. We then made our way through the very picturesque “Razor Point” trail. We decided to head back to the cars before it got completely dark. Overall, I think it's safe to say that we achieved the goal of pointing people in the right direction of becoming more active and discover the new environment around them. (10/10 would do hikes again)
Written by Francis BanaNa
SOCIALS
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DISTRICT CONVENTION This year’s District Convention took place in Woodland Hills! I was really excited because I thought I would see Kourtney Kardashian because she lives there, but alas, I did not. However, I still had a lot of fun either way! I got to experience so many new things. For example, I got to host my first-ever district workshop with my friend Cody from UN: Reno and I participated as a panel guest on the secretary panel. I also got to represent SDSU in House of Delegates, which was very long, but it was cool to see Zach get elected as the new Paradise LTG. Julia and I also embarked on an adventure to find a microwave in the hotel for my teriyaki beef bowl and I can’t say I’ve ever gone on a trek for a microwave before. Also a first: I skipped out on most of the good food at DCON because I was going gluten-free at the time. My favorite part about DCON would have to be seeing how supportive everyone was of each other and how we appreciated each other’s hard work. I know that Jasmine and Scrapbook committee worked extremely hard on the two scrapbooks and it was so nice to hear them receive compliments on it from other schools! I also knew that Spirit Committee headed by Sam and Ugochi got a lot of praise and laughter for their awesome spirit items like the Yvonne and Gerald posters. The best part of course, was seeing people win awards for their hard work and bonding with one another. I’m so glad that SDSU won so many awards and to see the whole club jumping up and down cheering tirelessly after every win made me so proud to be part of such an excellent, passionate, and dedicated club!
Written by Vivian Nguyen (Pictured bottom center with Yvonne Velasco, Cody yamada, & Melissa Farlow)
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FAMILY COMPETITION I am very happy with how family competition went. It seemed that most people there enjoyed the relay games and it was a good way to wrap up the yearlong family competition. There was an abundance of bonding and friendly competition. Many eggs were broken and the icebreakers were aplenty. Hopefully there will be many more family competitions like that one next year. I would say the high point of the day was seeing everyone do the banana olympics and each family looking equally ridiculous doing the chimp walk. Even though Xavier’s Saviors won, Generation X is still number one (in my heart). I hope everyone had a wonderful time at the family competition day and bonded more with their families. I cannot wait to serve as the club’s MD&E Chair over the next school year! I hope it will be filled with great memories and lots of feelings and ugly crying! Written by Brennan McDonough (pictured on right with nadia inzunza)
A special thank you to all of our Family Heads this year! The family system could not have been possible without you all. Xavier’s Saviors
Nadia Inzunza
Megan Thai
Doom Patrol
Andrea Steele
Jessica Gutierrez
Phoenix Force
Vivian Nguyen
Jenny Hackleman
Generation X
Brennan McDonough
Kristoff Aragon
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Member Highlights Each week, we recognize an outstanding member that has helped the club and made a difference at events. They also get to spend the week with our adorable monkey mascot Monty!
Name: Diana Nguyen Year: Sophomore Major: Biology Family: Phoenix Force Favorite food: Fries Dream job: Something involving helping others/traveling Fun fact: I love trying & making sweets!
Name: Lili De la Torre Year: Sophomore Major: Undeclared (humanities), art Family: Xavier's Saviors Favorite food: Food in general Dream job: Circus performer/ National Geographic photographer Fun fact: I read mythology and astronomy for fun, it influences a lot of my art.
Name: Hershey Guzman Year: 2nd year Major: Public Health Family: Xavier's Saviors Favorite food: French fries Dream job: Pediatrician Fun fact: I don't like swimming past five feet due to my fear of not being able to touch the bottom! Name: Megan Thai Year: Sophomore Major: Microbiology Family: Xavier Savior’s Dream job: To get paid to travel ;D Fun fact: I’m scared of lighters because I accidentally burned my nose causing me to be traumatized
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Member Highlights Name: Jasmine F ukutomi Year: Sophomore Major: Biology Family: Doom Patrol Favorite food: Japanese Food Dream job: A job that makes a lot of money Fun fact: Along with swimming and water polo, I also used to compete in paddle boarding.
Name: Jessica Gutierrez Year: Senior! #Classof2015 Major: Public Health Family: Doom Patrol Favorite food: Anything pasta related Dream job: To manage my own hospital or clinic Fun fact: I don't have a gallbladder anymore LOL
Name: Victoria Romero Year: Freshman Major: Marketing Family: Phoenix Force! Food: Paninis Dream job: Advertising for OREOs Fun fact: I'm a night owl!
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Senior Recognition Congratulations to all of our graduating seniors!!! We’re going to miss you a whole heck of a lot.
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Written By Gabriel Hernandez (Pictured in center with Mariah Adams, Yvonne Velasco, Andrew Tran, and Lisa Kanemori)
Senior Appreciation Night “I had the pleasure of hosting the Senior Appreciation dinner for our graduating Circle K’ers. Each of the seniors honored at the dinner that night have made a significant impact on our club, and it has been a privilege to get to know each and every one of them. Whether their contributions were in the background or on board, each one of the seniors have helped shaped the club to what it is today. A home. This dinner was the least that I could do to show our appreciation for their countless contributions and sacrifices they have made for the club. The night was filled with good company, a lot of emotions, and a lot of tissue. Circle K’ers and Kiwanians alike were able to convey how much our lovely seniors mean to us. Their absence will definitely be felt, and their shoes will be hard to fill. But this is their home, and we will always welcome them back! Thank you again graduating class of 2015 for everything you have done! We love you. Always.”
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CONGRATULATIONS SENIORS! Mariah Adams
Nadia Inzunza
Gerald Biando
Jessica Gutierrez
Jake Wong
Yvonne Velasco
Lisa Kanemori
Jamille Cabacungan
Stephanie Lozano Dustin Cole
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“I’m going to miss spending time with everyone and just the overall atmosphere of being with a genuine loving club that cares about each other. I’m going to miss all the crazy adventures with the squad; especially impromptu adventures that always lead us to food. I’m going to miss that every time I was feeling sad or it was an off day for me, all I had to do was go to a meeting or an event and instantly there was a smile plastered on my face for the rest of the day!” -Nadia Inzunza “After Graduation I am excited to volunteer with Pacific Blvd. Elementary School in the Children Medical Unit for Physical Therapy. Something I’ll miss the most about SDSU is having Circle K events to look forward towards and seeing my friends on a regular basis.” -Stephanie Lozano
“When I first met Circle K, they were at Embrace serving dinner to the homeless. I mentioned that I was an SDSU student and they readily invited me to join their campus org. I'll always remember meeting the most welcoming group of people I had ever met, and I'm glad the positive energy has never faded away. There is no doubt that I have been truly blessed to have befriended people who value altruism as much as I do. The same can be said for the Grantville Aliied Kiwanis, and others in the Kiwanis Family. My college career would not have been the same without the service, fellowship, and leadership this org. offered, and for that, I am forever grateful.” –Jamille Cabacungan “One of my favorite Circle K memories is actually how I met Stephanie Fryar. She sat next to me during my first meeting and introduced herself and stuff, and then next thing you know during GBM, her slide comes up and she introduces herself as secretary. I felt like I just met a celebrity LOL it was awesome.” -Jessica Gutierrez
“To me, Circle K is where I can give back to my community AND spend time with my best friends all at once. It's where I learned leadership skills that I hope to apply in my career and future relationships, and it's where I met those who are most important to me. Circle K is my home away from home.”
–Yvonne Velasco
“When I first came to SDSU I knew exactly one person. We stuck together most of the time but I wanted to find more friends and find some place I was really comfortable. My freshman dorm roommate Nadia was going to Circle K meetings and I decided to go one meeting and I was hooked from then on. It's cliché to say that Circle K has become my family but it is so true. I've grown with these people and it feels like we've always been friends even though I've only known them for less than 4 years.” -Lisa Kanemori
“Circle K has meant the world to me. It is the opportunity that helped me to grow to the person I am today. It was the everyday challenge to better myself and to yearn to be there for those around me. It is the chance to find my passion and what I would like to do for a living.” -Jake Wong
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CONTACT US! Melissa Farlow President sdsucirclekpresident@gmail.com
Vivian Nguyen Vice President of Administration sdsucirclekvpa@gmail.com
Sharanee Sytha Vice President of Service sdsucirclekvpservice@gmail.com
Andrea Steele Treasurer sdsu.cktreasurer@gmail.com
Simi Kakwani Secretary sdsucircleksecretary@gmail.com
G-Bus Aguilar Fundraising Chair sdsu.circlekfrchair@gmail.com
Kristoff Aragon Historian sdsu.ckhistorian@gmail.com
Kevin Nhim Kiwanis Family Chair nhimkap4@gmail.com
brennan_mcdonough@yahoo.com
Gabriel Hernandez MRP Chair sdsucirclekmrpchair@yahoo.com
Sam Pfau Public Relations Chair samantha.pfau@yahoo.com
Francis Banaña Social Chair banana.francis93@gmail.com
Zsoli Reynolds Spirit Chair
Gautam Nair Technology Chair gautam.nair96@gmail.com
angela_zsoli_reynolds@yahoo.com
Brennan McDonough MD&E Chair
Circle K Pledge
I pledge to uphold the objects of Circle K International, to foster compassion and goodwill towards others through service and leadership, to develop my abilities and the abilities of all people, and to dedicate myself to the realization of mankind’s potential!