November 19, 2005

HIGH SCHOOL SCENE

Windermere helps out local high schools

Windermere Silicon Valley Properties continued its tradition of financial commitment to support community schools by providing scholarships for two Silver Creek High School students from the graduating class of 2005.

Manager Dave Walsh (left) and Owner Scott Kliewer present scholarship checks to Silver Creek High School graduates Natasha Susoev and Kimberly Espresion.

Students interested in receiving a scholarship wrote an essay about the educational opportunities they experienced by attending Silver Creek High School. Windermere then worked with Silver Creek’s principal and head counselor of the school to determine which two Silver Creek students should receive the coveted $2,500 scholarships.

Kimberly Espresion, who now attends UC Berkeley, and Natasha Susoev, who attends UC Santa Barbara as a business economics major, won the scholarships.

Both girls were valedictorians of their class and commended their educational experience at Silver Creek. They believe the advanced placement programs, extra-curricular programs and dedication of some “amazing” teachers helped them achieve their education goals.

Hurricane Katrina relief
In October, Windermere learned of students’ efforts to support Hurricane Katrina victims at Oak Grove High School.

A group of students led a donation drive encouraging students to donate their own money to help the hurricane victims. They raised $1,150 with this grass roots effort. Windermere Silicon Valley Properties was so impressed and proud of the students’ efforts and generosity, they matched the funds, allowing a total donation of $2,300 to be sent to Hurricane Katrina victims.

The Windermere Foundation, the nonprofit portion of Windermere Silicon Valley Properties, funded both the scholarships and Hurricane Katrina donation match. A portion of each commission generated by a Windermere agent goes into the Windermere Foundation fund.

Additionally, agents make further discretionary contributions. To date, Windermere’s Silver Creek office has donated nearly $30,000 to the local community. Windermere is proud to support the community it serves.

For more information about Windermere Silicon Valley Properties, visit the Web site at www.wsvp.com or call (408) 239-5800.

Save the date:

Strength for the Day club offers Dec. 3 college panel

The Strength for the Day club will be offering a college panel in the community center of the Tully Branch Library, located at 880 Tully Road, on Saturday, Dec. 3, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The panelists will discuss various options in higher education, including community, public/University of California and private colleges. There will also be plenty of time to ask questions.

(From left) Mabel Zhuang and Theodora Tran co-founded a club for high school students called “Strength for the Day” to help the community.

The panel includes two representatives from EVC. Linda Flournoy, a professor at Evergreen Valley College, will cover the two-year community college option as well as the four-year public school option based on her own experiences attending UC Santa Cruz. Ingrid Rottman, who works with EVC’s Transfer program, will discuss how to transfer from EVC to a four-year school.

Student panelists include Peggy Chung from Stanford University, Justin Nguyen from UC Berkeley and Julie Ann Yueh, previously from UC Davis and now at Santa Clara University.

About Strength for the Day
Theodora Tran, a senior at Valley Christian High School in San Jose, and Mabel Zhuang, a senior at ACCEL middle college program at Evergreen Valley Community College, co-founded the Strength for the Day club last year.

Comprised of about 20 high school students, mostly from the ACCEL middle college program, the club sponsors fundraising activities such as a piano benefit concert held at Le Petit Trianon in downtown San Jose last year. The successful event raised more than $1,000, which the club donated to the American Red Cross for tsunami relief.

“We founded this organization last year to help our community,” said Tran. “Because my school did not have clubs in which I could help out to the extent that I wanted to, I decided to start Strength for the Day with Mabel, who also wanted to start up a foundation because her program does not offer clubs.”

Strength for the Day is in the process of getting recognized as a not-for-profit organization by the government.