Disabled Student Programs & Services

Sandy Nightingale, M. A.    Disabled Student Services Specialist phone    707-465-2324 mailto:sandy-nightingale@redwoods.edu

Having graduated from Del Norte High School, I am a product of local schools.  I went to several colleges as an undergraduate, graduating eventually with a B.A. in history from Humboldt State University.  I swore that I would never return to Del Norte County, but found myself living here in the early seventies telling myself that I would only stay for a couple of years.  In 1974, I went to work for the new full time operation of College of the Redwoods, Del Norte.  The college was located at the fairgrounds then and was known by many in the community as College of the Fairgrounds.  I was lucky to participate in the building of a college and have had my hand in all aspects of the college development.   In 1985, I went to work for Disabled Student Programs and Services, accepting a reduction in weekly hours and work year to raise my young children and to work towards my master's degree.  I obtained my master's degree from Humboldt State University in 1991 with a specialization in Adults with Learning Disabilities. I've worked for a year as the interim District Coordinator for Disabled Student Programs and Services in Eureka.  I was the writer of the original Del Norte High Tech Center grant, which has evolved into a very successful program at our campus today.  Recently, I wrote a Community Development Block Grant application which has been accepted for funding by the State of California and which will build a permanent facility adjacent to the library to house Disabled Student Programs and Services to be completed by December 2002.

My family is almost grown now.  I have two daughters in college. In August 2001, I celebrated my thirty-second wedding anniversary.  My husband is a teacher.  I have a long time interest in plants and gardening.  My yard is bird friendly, receiving regular visits from wild doves, band tail pigeons, yellow and red finches and grosbeaks. Hawks occasionally come to feed at my bird feeder snatching up unsuspecting victims.  I've tried to feed hummingbirds with a feeder, but they prefer the abundant blossoms in my yard.  My dog, Bingo, regularly patrols my yard keeping away threats such as possums, garbage trucks and helicopters.  I love my MacIntosh computer.   The shiny stones of old jewelry attract me like a magnet and  I have a small collection of "Eisenberg Ice", a type of jewelry that features Austrian crystals.  I am an avid reader of a variety of books and periodicals.  I am a patron of the theatre, viewing productions around the west coast on a regular basis.  My most recent viewing experience was in Sacramento where I watched   “Showboat” featuring a nationally known cast.  My recent obsessions are genealogy and refinishing old furniture.  I want to paint everything using “milk paint” which is an environmentally friendly paint using milk as a basis.  In the past month, I connected with a  person on the internet who had the clues for me to connect with the family of my grandmother who died in 1924.  My immediate family, including her son, my dad, knew nothing of her family or background.  I was able to visit my great-grandpa’s and great-grandma’s burial site and the house that he built in Stockton in the last half of the nineteenth century.  On another side of the family, I found out recently that my grandmother’s cousin was President of Finland, Kusta Kallio-Kangas, and that another portion of my family descended from the Germanna colonies in Virginia in the 1600’s.  In my grandpa’s stuff, which had been lost for 30 years, I found a photograph of Jesse James, who used to carry books for my grandma on her way to school.

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