Pily Macuil

Pily Macuil has turned her house into the bilingual daycare/preschool, Tikiland. She moved to California twenty years ago from Mexico, where she was a preschool teacher. At 57, She has 5 daughters, and she lives in Palo Alto with her husband and several pets - a dog, 2 bunnies, 5 doves, and 3 parakeets.











https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lh5DJKnqy5knFH-C0x-NYHnb4hT_fFUny2i24pt2OR8/edit?usp=sharing

Dave Howell

Dave Howell

I profiled Dave Howell, senior minister at the First Congregational Church of Palo Alto (right down Embarcadero). This is a picture of him acting with Clarence the Camel, his puppet, to tell the children's story on Sunday's service. Dave loves to work with youth and people in general, loves art history, music, theatre, the guitar, movies, basketball (his broken leg is featured). He met his wife playing her husband in a high school production, and they now have two daughters, one pursuing theatre, the other a marine biologist that plays basketball. 

Video of Dave

Quick clip of Clarence

Jamilla Rages

Jamilla Rages is an employee at Books Inc, avid reader, and Muay Thai fighter. She grew up in East Palo Alto and has lived here for most of her life. She loves working with books because they open up new worlds and perspectives to herself and others.

Here is the link to my photo essay.

Sasha Atefi

Sasha is the creator and owner of Sasha Salon in San Carlos, CA. He was born in Iran, but has lived all over the world, some of those places being Italy, Greece and Canada. Sasha intended to become a pharmacist and has biochemistry major from the University of Toronto, however, he decided to abandon this career-path to become a hairstylist. With over twenty years of experience, Sasha has accumulated over six-hundred clients that call his salon their hair-home.
Photo Essay

Michael Granville

Michael Granville is a bootcamp instructor and a Paly cross country and track coach. He was a high school track star, breaking American records from 8th grade through 12th grade, ending with an American high school record in the 800 meters that is still standing today. He lives in Redwood City, and he now leads four bootcamp classes a day at the Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto. He is married and has two sons, and he loves to draw, write, and do push-ups in his spare time.

Podcast here

Professor Margot Gerritsen

Professor Margot Gerritsen is a pioneer in the rapidly growing (and currently predominantly male) field of data science and analytics. Since joining the Stanford ICME faculty, Professor Gerritsen has doubled the number of women in the program; however, significant challenges remain before women will be proportionally represented in the lucrative “big math” marketplace.

Podcast here.

Tennisha Vines

Tennisha Vines is the Group Exercise Manager and a ZUMBA Instructor at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. She also works for ZUMBA as a Jammer or teacher of aspiring instructors. She is married and has two sons: a freshman in college and an 18-month-old. Tennisha is currently pursuing a career in real estate and is taking her exam next month. It's no doubt that Tennisha dances to the beat of her own drum in every aspect of her life.

Rose Cornejo

Rose Cornejo (left) is the happy owner and manager of La Esquina, a small Mexican Restaurant in downtown Los Gatos. She was the third person in her family to inherit this family-owned business. Rose's mission is to build a tightknit community through her restaurant.

The lady on her right is her mother, the previous owner of the restaurant before Rose inherited it in 2013.

Click here to view a photo essay on Rose Cornejo.

Reverend Gia Hayes-Martin

Reverend Gia Hayes-Martin is a priest at St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Menlo Park. She was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio in the Roman Catholic Church and attended Xavier University, a Jesuit college in Cincinnati. While pursuing a PhD in history at Vanderbilt University, she rediscovered an avenue for her faith in the Episcopal Church after she realized that her true vocation was to become a priest. She moved back to Cleveland and was sponsored for ordination there, eventually moving out to California and meeting her Scottish husband, Melville Hayes-Martin. The Reverend serves on the Episcopal Church’s Task Force on the Study of Marriage, and she is on the conference planning team of The Young Clergy Women Project.

Here are two pictures of the Reverend (one of higher quality after the Eucharist and one of lower quality in action since it was not particularly permitted to interfere with other worshipers experiences by taking photos during the Eucharist):



Here is a link to a podcast where the Reverend talks a little about her experience of sexual harassment within the Episcopal Church in response to a question about the Weinstein story: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Q7T1YRvUJB6g-WRIqGelZwxPw_VKSy2h

Jamil Khayrulin

Jamil Khayrulin was born and raised in Baku, Azerbaijan. He spent his childhood with his loving family and friends, went to the school of construction and architecture in the country's capital, and fought for the soviets in the nine year Soviet-Afghan war. Upon arrival in the US Jamil moved to California on his 31st birthday. In California, Jamil began to work as a photo framer, formed an unbreakable bond with his grandkids, and became a mountaineer.

Here is an image of Jamil inspecting two psychedelic prints, making sure that he didn't need to make any final touches, before he hands them over to his customer.

Here is a link to my photo essay

Brendon Bell

Brendon Bell is 32. He works for Tinkering School in San Francisco, currently spearheading their extension at The Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco. He was born in Texas, but has for the most part been in California his whole life. He wants to teach, specifically non-violent communication. He wants to build a tiny house, just as soon as he can find a place to park it. In one sentence, he describes himself as, "someone who wants to live their life intentionally as much as possible, in every way. And to leave a positive impact."

Photo Essay

Araceli

Araceli works at the Prolific Oven. She started working at the Prolific Oven three years ago directly after graduating high school and is now Assistant Manager. Araceli considers many of her co-workers at the Prolific Oven family and feels a special connection to the physical space because her dad worked there when it first opened.

                                      

                                      

                                      

                                              

                                      

                                      

Mike Fitch

Mike Fitch is a 58 year old man who was first sales manager in the tech world, but then became the current owner of an olive oil store called the Olive Crush. The Olive Crush is his passion and allows him to spend more time with his family.

Here's the link to my photo essay

Linda Ruiz

Linda Ruiz is a fourth-generation seamstress and a long time owner of clothing store, Park Place Vintage located in San Jose. Ever since her grandmother taught her how to sew, Linda has been designing her own clothing inspired by vintage looks. Each year she puts on fashion shows to showcase her creations.

Here is the link to my photo essay. 

Viji Hebbal

Viji Hebbal is the owner of Viji's Beauty Salon in Cupertino. She has been passionate about beauty since her childhood, and has pursued a career in the beauty industry for the last 30 years. She worked in a salon in India and later established herself in the Bay Area community. Her passion for beauty stems from a genuine desire to create relationships with people and to bring happiness to the lives of others. Viji attributes her success to God as well as her determination to make her dreams a reality. She was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago, and that experience strengthened her as well gave her a greater appreciation for life. In the future, she would like to travel to foreign destinations and participate in physically challenging activities to live a new life of energy and happiness.

Here is a link to my podcast:

Nezeh (Nat) ElHamdi

Nat is in charge of the front of the Garden Court Hotel in downtown Palo Alto. He is originally from Tripoli Lebanon and has worked at the Garden Court for 23 years. Nat came to the United States when he was 20 and completed two years of school before he decided to start working at the Garden Court. Nat’s two favorite conversation topics are: 1) his home in Lebanon 2) his daughter. Nat raves about his family and loves to spend time with them after work. 

Link to Photo Essay

John Paye

John Paye is the coach of the varsity Menlo girls' basketball team. He went to Menlo for high school and Stanford for college. At Stanford, he played division one football and basketball. After college, he was drafted into the NFL and played for the 49ers for 2 years until he retired due to a shoulder injury.

Link to video

Manuel Quintanilla

Manuel is a cashier at the Redwood City Target. He's been working there since the store opened thirty years ago. He enjoys giving costumers the best service possible, and is proud of what he does. He has somewhat limited function on the left side of his body, but remains one of the stores most efficient cashiers. On his days off, he enjoys watching movies. 

Here is the link to my photo essay.

Caitlin Jordan

Caitlin Jordan is the children's book buyer at Kepler's, a bookstore in Menlo Park. She initially worked as the events team in-store liaison, but took the children's buyer position after she ended up growing a following of kids who kept coming back for her recommendations. Caitlin loves being able to find books that excite each kid and hopes to one day use her creative writing skills, her major in College, to write her own book. 

Here is the link to my podcast.

Jim Lyons

Jim Lyons is a senior resident at the Webster House, a community for the elderly in Palo Alto. He has dedicated his life to service and education, working as the Dean of Students at Haverford College, and later, Stanford. He suffers from macular degeneration, a disease which slowly robs him of his sight, but acts nonchalant about his condition. He writes a column called Musings from the Lyons Den to share his insights on the world with those around him, and is full of entertaining, and at times, outlandish, stories. He is pictured above, editing the column, in his office.

Video

Jake Shuppe

Jake Shuppe is 27 years-old and works at Palo Alto Bicycles on the weekends and manages apartment buildings in San Jose during the week. He loves to travel the world for the experiences and reach outside his comfort zone. He is also a world record holder in rowing. 

PODCAST!

Virginie Forget

Virgine Forget is currently a chef at Sur la Table in Town and Country and teaches cooking classes on topics such as “French Sauces 101” and “Fresh Ideas for Zoodles”. Though she originally moved to the United States from France to become a businesswoman, she ultimately became a chef at Sur la Table so that she could explore her passions for cooking and teaching simultaneously.

Click here to listen to my podcast. 

Nora Tana

Nora Tana is a waitress at Thai Bangkok in Cupertino. She has worked there for two and half years and moved to America from Thailand with her ex-husband ten years ago. She has worked in Thai restaurants in Iowa and throughout the Bay Area since her move. Along with serving amazing food, Nora is Buddhist and devotes her days to her passion for making other people laugh and smile.

Listen to my podcast here.

Harvey Fishman

Dr. Harvey Fishman is an MD-PhD ophthalmologist. After spending numerous years in the research world, he decided to create his own private practice, Fishman Vision. He's been working there for the last 10 years with no intention of stopping anytime soon. Outside of work, he's an avid swimmer and the loving father and chauffeur of two children.

Listen to the podcast about Dr. Fishman here

Cynthia Varela

Cynthia Varela is a twenty-one year-old daughter, a passionate animal advocate, and a friendly employee at the West Bayshore Road Starbucks. Her job is to oversee workers as a shift manager, manage the cash box, and make drinks. When she is not working —1 day of her week—she can be found sleeping in, listening to Rap and R&B music, or adding to the list of tattoos that she wishes to get as sleeves on her arms. Next year she plans to stop working at Starbucks and pursue a career in business at any of the universities in the Bay Area. This way she will be able to live at home and go to school at the same time. 

Here is the link to my podcast

Xiaofeng Foret

(second from the right)

Xiaofeng Foret (née Hu) was a hitter on the Chinese national team when they won the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Women's World Championship in 1986. After playing professionally in China and in Turkey, Foret moved to the U.S. to finish her middle school, high school, and university education. She is now a licensed acupuncturist and massage therapist. She also owns her own volleyball school and teaches private volleyball lessons.

Link to photo essay.

Sarah Walsworth

Sarah Walsworth owns Royalty Tattoo Collective in Burlingame. She has devoted her life to art, design, and creativity. Now, as a tattoo artist, Sarah helps transform customers' bodies into liberated canvases of self-expression.

Here is the link to my photo essay.

Randy Bertao

Randy grew up on a dairy farm in the San Joaquin Valley and got involved in restaurants at the age of 24. In his 25 years of working in the restaurant business, Randy has achieved the title of Master Sommelier, one of only around 200 worldwide. Randy trained for five years to become a Master Sommelier and traveled all over Europe and California learning all he could about wine, turning his passion into his career. Randy now works at the Los Altos Golf and Country Club as a general manager and is always there to help customers and to try to make people just a little bit happier, be it through giving them a good wine recommendation or just engaging them in conversation.

video

May Hsu

May Hsu has owned Fleur de Lis flower shop in downtown Mountain View since 1985, after emigrating from Taiwan with her family. May is a devout Buddhist, and considers being kind to others one of the most important parts of life. Although running a flower shop is a very physically demanding profession, the 64-year-old May says she’ll stick with it as long as being a florist lets her do her favorite things: spread small acts of kindness and meet new people.

Click here to listen to my podcast