Published on 9/1/2016.
Today we held the first annual Welcome Back Party on the Eureka campus celebrating equity among students, student diversity, and student success. This tremendously successful event was hosted by the Office of Student Equity and Success and the Outreach Team.
All of this would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the planning team. A huge thank you goes out to Renee Saucedo, Susan Weigman, Jordan Walsh, Lupita Martinez, Morgan Thompson, Jenessa Lund, Heidi Bereilles, Marty Coelho, and Kelly Carbone.
Cheryl Seidner—a Wiyot Tribal Council Member, former Chair of the Tribal Council, member of the CR Multicultural Committee, and a Spiritual Leader—provided a welcoming ceremony.
We had entertainment from:
DJ James Lockard. James has been DJ’ing in Humboldt County for over 15 years.
Tatiana and Bettina Robinson - Hula
Bettina is an Assistant Teacher at CR's Child Development Center. She has been dancing hula since the age of 4 with over 20 years of experience dancing professionally. She has had the honor of working with notable people in the Hawaiian community such as, Johnny Alamedia, John Piilani Watkins, Danny Couch, and Dennis Kamakahi. Just to name a few. Tatiana graduated from CR in 2014 with an AS in General Business and AA in Business (with High Honors). After graduating Tatiana was hired at CR in Enrollment Services. Born and raised in Hawaii Tatiana started dancing hula at the age of 6 and started dancing in her first hula halau at the age of 10. After moving to Eureka she wanted to feel contacted to Hawaii in some way and started teaching Hula. Erik Naslund who works in financial aid accompanied the group on guitar.
Gary Ronne - Taiko
Gary Ronne is a former CR student and now works helping students get to what they need at the front lines in Counseling and Advising. Gary preformed Taiko- a type of Japanese drumming. The name Taiko means “Big Drum” in Japanese. Gary started playing about 15 years ago and was first taught Taiko by Sensei Takana, the man who is considered to be the Father of Taiko to western culture. Gary built the drums he played, a process that took about 2 years to complete.