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Authors: S-Corps Leadership Team On December 6, the small gym was filled with the laughing sounds of students relaxing one last time before finals, and the fragrant smells of redwood, eucalyptus, sage, and freshly baked cookies. As branches traded hands and got tied into wreaths by students and staff alike, sustainable consumption did not feel challenging at all.  About 100 students and faculty came to the S-Corps sponsored annual DIY Holiday Extravaganza, held in the small gym, to make wreaths, swags and decorate ornaments, while enjoying hot cider and Christmas cookies. The wreaths and swags were made out of freshly harvested Living Lab greenery, the ornaments were made out of pinecones, and the cookies were homemade. Especially in our nation, the holiday season has become a time of laughter, fun, and also a lot of consumption. More than any other time of the year, we often find ourselves in the aisle or the checkout line, with a shopping cart – real or digital – full of things . As part of  O’Dowd’s mission, our Sustainability program is dedicated to promoting sustainable living in our community as well as in our personal lives. Thus, the DIY event allowed students to create their own decorations and gifts from reused materials so as to give a fun alternative to consumer culture this holiday season. Each of the activities – wreath and ornament making, hot cider, and cookie decorating – were prepared, made and decorated using either sustainable, homemade ingredients or reused materials from our very own Living Lab. As students have learned, practicing sustainable consumption means shopping for products that are environmentally and socially preferable, while avoiding products that are not. It also means reusing materials and products that already exist, and, most simply, just consuming less. This DIY event reminded our community to consider the environmental and/or ethical costs of the products we choose to purchase, and to consider alternative ways of giving gifts this year.

Congratulations to the O’Dowd Dragons Football team for winning the State Championship! Read the story at the Mercury News » Here are some shots from the team parading through the halls on Friday, Jan 6.

String Orchestra performed an impromptu set of holiday music for BART passengers at the Embarcadero Station in San Francisco to close out the Fall Semester. The shoppers and tourists loved the music and several members of the orchestra were interviewed for an upcoming feature article on the Bart.gov website.

Daniel Stephens ’94 an Advocate for Underserved Youth As a fourth grade teacher in the Compton Unified School District, Daniel Stephens ’94 was committed to supporting his students both in and outside the classroom. He routinely attended his students’ athletic contests, music and dance recitals – even the quinceañeras of their older siblings. So it wasn’t out of the ordinary when Stephens checked in on a former student who was hospitalized and being treated for sickle cell disease. “She missed a fair amount of school, so I went to visit her often and brought her classwork and homework so she didn’t fall behind,” he said. During those visits, Stephens got a close up look at pediatric medicine and the experience sparked thoughts about a career change. “One of the nurses gave me some great advice,” he said. “She told me it seemed I had a genuine interest in medicine and I should give it a shot.” Changing Gears Today, as the Director of Adolescent Medicine at Union Community Health Center in the Bronx, Stephens works tirelessly to ensure that young people have access to comprehensive integrated health care services. “Thirty years ago, the model was a single pediatrician working on his own taking care of kids,” Stephens said. “Today, care can be delivered by a team of people – not just those working in medicine, but also people from the school system, athletic groups, artist communities, religious and community-based organizations, all working together on behalf of kids and their families.” A graduate of Harvard College, who majored in history, Stephens had always planned on attending law school after teaching for a few years. But at the age of 29, after fulfilling some science prerequisites at University of Pennsylvania, and with immense encouragement from family and friends including his brother Fred Stephens ’91, Dr. Aaron Gardiner ’94 and Kevin McDonald ’94, Stephens found himself at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. “At first I missed the classroom, because teaching was a lot more fun than learning medicine,” he said. “But it was just a matter of plugging away and meeting similarly minded, inspired, passionate people.” After completing medical school and residency, Stephens worked in the pediatric emergency room at Harlem Hospital. “I sharpened my clinical skills there, and enjoyed working in and being involved with the community, but I had no hand in what happened before the patients came in and no role in what happened after,” he said. “As a doctor I wanted continuity – the chance to bring patients back and get to know families.” Day-to-Day Routine At Union Community Health Center, Stephens not only provides comprehensive health care for youngsters and teens, ages 12-24, he trains pediatric and family practice residents as well as medical students from three New York City medical schools – Einstein, Sophie Davis and New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM). He also serves on the center’s quality assurance, patient centered medical home, and delivery system reform incentive payment program committees. “Union is a federally qualified health center, which means it meets very specific criteria set out in the Affordable Care Act to provide services to low income and low resource communities,” he said. “I get to help flesh out how we go about practicing and providing services.” Stephens is also heavily involved with Union’s Teen Health Center, funded by a grant from the Comprehensive Adolescent Pregnancy Program (CAPP) initiative, which offers community groups that help young men and women improve self-esteem, reduce risk-taking behavior, improve academic success and maintain a healthy lifestyle. In the greater community, Stephens has worked with the Bronx Borough president on an HIV round table, and has teamed with Karen Stradford ’94, deputy director at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene- New York City Teens Connection, on various initiatives. Striking the Balance for Care The integrated model of medicine – providing primary and behavioral health services at a single location – isn’t yet the norm, Stephens said, mostly due to funding issues. “There’s a ton to be gained from team model medicine,” he said. “But the challenge is you have to have multiple ways of generating revenue to pay for it.” Though parents may be good about bringing their children to the clinic when they have a cold, broken arm, or other medical issue, they may not have the ability, desire, or time to travel to another location for programmatic services that could improve their health and wellness, Stephens said. It’s even more important for teens to have access to integrated services, Stephens said. “It’s easier for them to seek help for things like addiction or mental health issues because they can say they are going to the clinic for a doctor’s appointment. Other people don’t have to know the specific reason for the visit,” he said. “Teens are the healthiest subset of people that we know. They are not at risk for the diseases that adults get later in life, like high blood pressure and heart disease, and they’re not necessarily susceptible to childhood illnesses that infants and babies get, like whooping cough or pneumonia,” he said. “But they’re the most at risk for any number of poor outcomes having to do with risky behavior.” Providing a confidential space where teens can share – either with their physicians or specialized support groups – what’s going on in their lives can result in better outcomes, Stephens said. For Stephens, one of the most rewarding aspects of being a doctor is knowing he is having a long-term impact on his patients. “If you can get a 15-year-old to understand the importance of healthy behavior and habits, you are setting that person up for 80 more years of healthy, productive, happy life,” he said. While Stephens sees nutrition and obesity as the most pressing public health issues for adolescents, he worries about their reported increasing feelings of isolation and lack of social connection. “We have so many ways of connecting with people, but people actually feel less connected,” he said. “A young person might have 1,000 friends on Facebook, but they can’t actually describe the last occasion they spent time with a friend.” Meanwhile, the former O’Dowd student body president says he often tells the teens that he works with that it’s okay if they are uncertain about what career path to pursue. “It’s great if you know your passion and you have known it from when you were a small child,” he said. “But sometimes you find it later in life, you meet someone who exposes you to something new, or an unexpected opportunity comes your way.” Stephens is quite content in his second career. “Life is good and it’s very fulfilling,” he said.

O’Dowd’s state champion football team was celebrated on Friday, January 6, with a parade through the school hallways led by the cheer squad. Players wore their game jerseys and championship hats, along with the medals they won for the North Coast Section, regional and state championships. Meanwhile, several Dragons were named to the San Francisco Chronicle’s 2016 All-Metro High School Football Team , and Austin Jones ’19 was named the paper’s East Bay Regional Player of the Year. The paper also recognized coach Napoleon Kaufman as a first teach coach and the team as a “biggest breakout.” Read more » Jones was also named to the Max Preps sophomore All-America second team.  Read more »

National Organizer for the Put a Price on It Campaign Tom Erb visited O’Dowd earlier this month to participate in the Sustainability Guest Speaker Series. A junior at Pomona College, Erb is a public policy analysis major with a concentration in environmental analysis. He was recently featured on National Geographic’s Years of Living Dangerously , Season 2 (Episode 6: Price on Carbon). During his talk, Erb shared how his own call to action and passion for sustainability began in high school, and the challenges and opportunities he has faced as a youth activist. He then led attendees through a simulation activity based on the concept of lobbying for a climate change bill with congressional representatives that was largely based on his recent experience as an intern in Washington, D.C. Students learned the general framework for bill lobbying, and got to experience the process of advocating for an issue that they care deeply about. Between the lunchtime guest speaking sessions, Erb also worked with the 6th period S-Corps Leadership Team to better understand the challenging landscape of carbon pricing. Additionally, he shared tips about organizing environmental awareness campaigns, and building local and national coalitions. A special thanks to alumni Polina Garonchova ’14 for bringing Erb to O’Dowd. This coming semester will feature a wealth of guest speakers, including O’Dowd alumni, parents, and greater Bay Area community members: Thursday January 26: Ann McCormick with Newcomb’s Energy Engineer and Consultant Thursday February 16: Ruth Abbe, President of Zero Waste USA Thursday March 30: Alliance for Climate Education (for Freshman only) Tuesday April 25: Alumni Panel The entire O’Dowd community is invited to join us for these talks, and if you or someone you know is interested in speaking please reach out to Director of Sustainability, Andra Yeghoian .

O’Dowd’s Black Student Union (BSU) hosted a hopeful celebration commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. that featured songs, poetry readings, and spoken word. At the event, held in the Theater during MP on January 19, Liana Willis ’19 challenged fellow students to heed King’s call for worldwide fellowship. In his Nobel Peace Prize lecture in 1964, King said that although modern man had made spectacular strides in science and technology, there was an alarming poverty of the spirit. “The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers,” he said. Willis pointed to various ways in which society fails to answer the call. “How can we expect our communities to prosper when many of us go through life with our headphones in and heads down, more concerned with our cell phones than the brother or sister walking past us?” Willis questioned. “Why is it that people who claim to be about world peace use their words to attack others holding different views?” Reflecting after the celebration, Willis said that now, more than ever, people must passionately work for change rather than sit passively. “We all have to stand up and fight, and I wanted to be a part of inspiring the students at our school to do that,” she said. In a very personal and poignant presentation, Isaiah Henry ’18 talked about the losses of friends and family members to violence. “We live in a broken society, where kids are not even safe. Man, lemme enjoy every minute with my loved ones and friends, because in this world that might be the last time I see them. Let me give harder hugs and hold on longer because it might be the last hug. This isn’t the world that Martin dreamed of. Where’s the brotherhood, the community of love?” he said. This doesn’t have to be our reality, we can change our destiny, Henry said. “In the words of Martin Luther King, ‘Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability.’ Let’s begin to change so that when we leave there isn’t the slightest feeling of finality. Let us change so that goodbye, really turns into a later. Let us change, so that hug won’t be the last one. Let us change so that boys and girls have the opportunity to become men and women.” While he was initially nervous about sharing his story, Henry said it was freeing as he had been carrying around unresolved feelings of loss for some time. It’s important now, more than ever, to remember the ideals that King advocated – particularly unity, Henry said. “Right now we have a divided nation. People need to remember that our forefathers fought hard for unity, and all this division is degrading their ideals,” he said. “Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged love, and there’s no such thing as too much love in this world.”

The O’Dowd men’s and women’s rugby teams played host to coaches from NEC Harlequins, of London, on January 20. The Harlequins Rugby Club just celebrated its 150th birthday and is looking to build relationships with high school, college and club rugby teams throughout Northern California. Gary Street, England’s 2014 Women’s World Cup winning coach and his staff ran a clinic at O’Dowd’s practice, focusing on skill building.  Though the rainy weather has wreaked havoc on all the campus grass surfaces, and the teams had to train in the small gym, the players’ enthusiasm was not dampened. Street commented, “What a keen and wonderful bunch of kids you have here.” O’Dowd Director of Rugby Ray Lehner said the visit provided a great opportunity for him and his staff to observe Coach Street and his crew put the Dragons through their paces.   “Rugby is the contact sport the rest of the world plays, and exposing our athletes to other voices and methods is an asset to our program,” Lehner said.

A few months into her part-time job in the Special Events Department with the Golden State Warriors, Jazmin Villanueva ’12 eagerly responded to an e-mail blast from the Community Relations Department requesting assistance for a special project at Oracle Arena. As Jazmin responded “I’m available,” she envisioned assisting at an exciting community event. Instead, Villanueva found herself in a mobile storage unit in the arena parking lot, on a hot summer’s day, sorting through decades-old giveaway items and apparel. Rather than get discouraged, Villanueva viewed the situation as a networking opportunity. She dove into the task at hand and chatted with the Community Relations Department staff to learn more about what they did. Villanueva’s optimistic attitude, hard work, and sincere interest in learning didn’t go unnoticed. Only weeks later, she was offered an assistant position in the Community Relations Department. “I actually think I was being interviewed for the job that day – even though I didn’t know that there was an opening,” she said. Always Up for a Challenge Villanueva has never shied away from challenges – being the only person from her San Leandro public middle school to attend O’Dowd; taking Honors and AP courses in high school; working 30 hours a week while at the same time taking a full course load of 18 units every semester at the University of San Francisco; and graduating Cum Laude from college in 3 1/2 years. Don’t ever pass up an opportunity and never think work is beneath you. “Don’t be afraid to get down and dirty.” With a longstanding interest in sports – Villanueva served as the team manager for O’Dowd’s freshman and junior varsity men’s basketball teams – she knew she wanted to pursue a sports-related career. But after participating in a Junior Achievement Social Innovation Camp, in which her team took first place, during her junior year of high school she discovered a passion for business. At USF, Villanueva majored in Organizational Behavior and Leadership with an interest in sports management. And she actively sought out opportunities to get involved in professional sports. She worked for the San Francisco Giants as a Junior Giants Ambassador, coordinating the organization’s free, non-competitive, and coed baseball program for youth ages 5-18 in her hometown of San Leandro, and assisted with events at AT&T Park. She also had an opportunity to support the team’s Media Relations Department throughout the 2014 World Series. Subsequently, Villanueva worked for the Oakland Athletics in Stadium Operations before joining the Warriors. Working to Better the Community In her role as a Community Relations Assistant, Villanueva has worked on programming in the areas of education, health and fitness, and citizenship. One of Villanueva’s initial projects was coordinating a Warriors Chef Academy graduation celebration, held at a San Francisco elementary school. Warriors Chef Academy is a healthy cooking program conducted in partnership with Bay Area non-profit partner 18 Reasons. Former Warriors player Kelenna Azubuike and local radio host Marcus D participated in the event. Currently, her focus is education, and she supports several programs including the Read to Achieve and Future Leaders Financial Literacy programs for elementary, middle, and high school students. She is also helping to build up the organization’s mentoring program. Additionally, Villanueva facilitates and tracks current and alumni player appearances. Finally, she manages the organization’s donation requests. “We get thousands of requests from schools and non-profit organizations for memorabilia for their auctions and raffles,” she said. Villanueva says the most challenging aspect of her work is the time commitment. “This is not a 40-hour-a-week job,” she said. Her work day can stretch up to 14 hours on game days, and there are upwards of 40 of those each season. “I come into the office at 8:30 a.m., work all day, and then go to the game and help manage whatever program or special event we have going on that night,” she said. That includes the Oracle Zone program on home game days which provides Bay Area community groups the opportunity to sit lower level, tour the arena, and watch shoot-around. “It’s an unforgettable experience for them,” Villanueva said. And, being a huge Warriors fan growing up, Villanueva admits it was hard not to be “Fan Girl” when she first started working for the team. Villanueva remains passionate about her job in Community Relations and feels she’s found her niche. “I would love to continue working with the Warriors, expanding our community impact within the Bay Area,” she said. “I also know that wherever I work in the future I want to be helping the community.” Villanueva’s advice to others starting their careers? Don’t ever pass up an opportunity and never think work is beneath you. “Don’t be afraid to get down and dirty,” she said.

Congrats to Bishop O’Dowd seniors Jordan Jackson and Aaron Jones Jr for being nominated to play on the Bay Area Elite Team “Oakland Section” at the 2017 California Classic. The game was held on Saturday, January 14 at Diamond Ranch High School in Pomona, CA. Jordan and Aaron both contributed to their team’s defeat against the LA Inland Empire (Final Score 20-7).  Once again, these two got to bring home another trophy and represented O’Dowd well!! Nice job guys!

O’Dowd is once again playing host to the Lillian Black Festival of the Arts, an event that showcases the visual and performing arts of the elementary and high school students of the Diocese of Oakland. Set for Sunday, February 26, 2017 from 1-5 p.m., this is the 31st annual such celebration of the arts, named in honor of Lillian Black, who served as the first lay principal of Corpus Christi School (from 1972-1979) before overseeing personnel and curriculum for all the schools within the Diocese of Oakland. In that role, Black organized an event that showcased art and offered a venue for performers. After she passed away from breast cancer in 1989, the annual event was named in her honor. The event is sponsored by the Lillian Black Children’s Arts Council of the Diocese of Oakland. O’Dowd art teacher Javier Sanchez is a member of the Council and serves as one of the key event coordinators, along with Corpus Christi first grade teacher Dorothy Lee. Additionally, Mark Ritter, an art teacher at Alameda’s St. Joseph Notre Dame High School and a member of the Council, provides tremendous assistance. “This festival gives opportunity for the arts to shine – even if it is just for a brief time on a Sunday afternoon,” Sanchez said. “Some schools don’t have their own individual shows, so it’s nice for those students to be able to display their work in public. It’s also great for the elementary school students to see the artwork created by high school students so they can see the progression.” Black’s eldest daughter, Aimee, a member of O’Dowd’s Class of 1979, said her mother loved art and wanted to ensure it was included in the Diocesan curriculum. “My mother majored in art at Marygrove College (Michigan) and taught art at Everett Junior High in San Francisco before she got married. She painted in her spare time before she became a Mom, and then shared her love of art with her own children, the children of Corpus Christi, and children of the entire Oakland Diocese,” she said. Aimee said the family is extremely honored that the Diocese continues to recognize her mother’s contributions annually, and added that her sister, Annie ’80, serves as Mistress of Ceremonies at the Festival each year. O’Dowd provides display boards and tables for showcasing the visual arts pieces, and Sanchez is on hand the day before the event to assist with set up. Art work is displayed in the small gymnasium, while singing, instrumental music, dance, or dramatic performances are housed in the theater. Sanchez said that O’Dowd musical director Fred Randolph is a strong supporter of the event, not only arranging for O’Dowd bands to participate but also loaning music stands and even instruments to other school bands so they can perform. On average, 20-25 schools participate in the festival, Sanchez said, with each submitting an application in advance detailing the special set up or equipment they might need. Each school is limited to 80 pieces of art. Sanchez said that the Council also periodically arranges workshops in which Diocesan art teachers meet to discuss curriculum and how students can best be prepared for high school art classes.

The Girls in STE(A)M Club welcomed Kim DeCarlis – recognized as a 2010 Silicon Valley Women of Influence – to campus on January 26, 2017 to talk about how STEM sets a foundation for success. DeCarlis earned a degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University and has a unique combination of high tech sales, product marketing and brand-building experience. In a presentation held in the theater during MP, the Chief Marketing Officer at Imperva, a leading provider of cyber security solutions, talked about the value of pursuing a STEM education and shared how she uses STEM each and every day in her position. DeCarlis said STEM helps her in Developing a hypothesis and testing it in campaigns Understanding the technical products and translating their benefits to customers Knowledge of the engineering process to build software Measuring success of work; managing budget DeCarlis opted to pursue STEM because she was seeking a challenge. “I’ve always chosen the path that wasn’t so simple,” she said. More importantly, she thought a STEM education would provide her with an opportunity for a successful career. “Success is multifaceted, and each of us needs to define our own success,” she said. In addition to her work at Imperva, DeCarlis served on the board of Girls in Tech. Girls in STE(A)M was founded this school year by Emma Wawrzynek ’17 and Kai Morton ’17 with the goal of encouraging young women to be more involved in the science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics field. The club moderators are science teacher Ming-Ching Wong and art teacher Brianna Loewinsohn . The club is open to everyone and welcomes male students who support girls in their pursuit of STE(A)M.

Students from both schools were joined by those from Carondelet High School, Stuart Hall High School, Cristo Rey – Sacramento, Cristo Rey – San Jose, College Prep, and St. Mary’s High School for the day-long event that included presentations from two keynote speakers, UC Berkeley Professor Khalid Kadir and judicial professor Kimberly Papillon ’87, and workshops that focused on topics like energy and environmental justice, organizing communities for social action, mass incarceration and police brutality, art and social justice and diversity in the classroom. Attendees also had an opportunity to brainstorm about taking action, solutions, and getting motivated. In a single year, event attendance grew from 30 to 100 participants and the number of workshops offered doubled. “When my colleague, Jocelyn Sideco (Director of Community Service and Social Justice at St. Ignatius), and I discussed how to approach the Bay Area Social Justice Teach-In this year, we discerned that opening up registration to other area high schools would serve not only those students and communities, but also ours. Given the current political climate, shared spaces for both students to get excited together about change-making and engage in dialogue are so important. We all left the event feeling electrified with hope for the future,” O’Dowd religious studies teacher and campus minister Beth Mueller said. Mueller and Sideco teamed together to organize the event. In her keynote presentation, Papillon talked about the neuroscience of decision-making, guiding attendees through exercises from the Implicit Association Test (IAT) which shows how our unconscious drives our day-to-day decision-making. “Scientists say that in a single second, the conscious components of the human brain can process 40 frames of information. In that same second, the unconscious components of the human brain can process 1.2 million frames of information,” she said. Chase Holliman ’17 was particularly interested in Papillon’s discussion of the IAT as he’s taking AP Psychology and recently took the test. “It shows how you can make a split-second decision and judge people unconsciously,” he said. Papillon said patterns of IAT results are vastly different in different countries. “This tells us it’s learned behavior, which means you can unlearn it. That’s the really good news,” she said. “But the hard part is we have to undo a lifetime of learning.”

Bishop James T. O’Dowd had a vision that Catholic schools would be places where students and teachers would come together to learn, serve, and grow, and he worked tirelessly as Superintendent of Schools of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to establish schools where this vision could be carried out. Bishop O’Dowd High School was the last school Bishop O’Dowd founded before he died tragically in a car accident in 1950. He was only 42 years old. Today, O’Dowd students, faculty, and staff are the torchbearers for our founder’s vision, expressed so fully in his personal motto “Cor Unum in Christo,” which is Latin for “One Heart in Christ,” that was adopted as the school’s motto. The school community gathered in the gymnasium on February 2 to celebrate Bishop O’Dowd and Catholic Schools Week with prayer, reflection, song, and fun. The celebration was organized by the Campus Ministry Team, the Associated Student Body, and S-Corps (the student action team of the Sustainability Department). In his reflection, Principal JD Childs said that Cor Unum in Christo is a way of describing Community in Diversity – one of the integral elements of the school’s charism. “We are always stronger as a school, we always stronger as a community, each one of us can be made better than we can be on our own, to the extent that we are willing to become a Community in Diversity to enact One Heart in Christ,” he said. A rousing game of O’Dowd Jeopardy – with categories that included history, teacher quotes, sports, and miscellaneous – and a Dragon Pride rap, written by Math teacher Willie Van Doren, and performed by Van Doren, Student Activities Director Starr Saunders ’98, Will Chavarin ’19 and Living Lab staff member Jeremy Pearson – rounded out the celebration. At the end of the school day, students were treated to It’s It ice cream treats.

O’Dowd football players were presented with a proclamation honoring their state championship at the State Capitol by Assemblymember Rob Bonta. The 2016 CIF-State Division 5-AA champion O’Dowd football team was honored on the Assembly Floor at the State Capitol on February 9 and will be recognized by the Oakland City Council on February 21.

Jazz Workshop Band performed at the Campana Jazz Festival held at Amador High School and gave a spectacular performance featuring the tunes Doxy, Misty, and The Look of Love. The students attended an excellent clinic with Mr. John Burns who gave outstanding musicianship awards to Roman Rodriguez and Aiden Spektor.  Congratulations to all for a great job!

Passion and Work Ethic Lead Stakeem Young ’09 to Exciting Career Virtual reality – technology in which users have fun, immersive and engaging interactions – has arrived in a big way. And Stakeem Young ’09 is at the forefront. Working for Facebook’s Oculus, as a quality assurance analyst, Young spends his days in the thick of VR headsets and next generation touch controllers that allow users to feel as if they are using their real hands to manipulate objects. “If there is a bug in the program we must find it,” Young explains. “And when developers push out updates in the program we have to make sure they are as clean as possible.” From the Kitchen to Alternative Reality Just four years ago, while he was majoring in graphic design at Cal State East Bay, Young was working as a shipping and receiving clerk at Home Depot and tackling freelance graphic design projects on the side. His brother worked for the company that provides culinary services on the Facebook campus, and learned of a shipping and receiving position in the cafeteria there. “I’ve always been into technology and he thought I would fit in well in the Facebook environment,” Young said. Young landed the job, and during his breaks and before and after work he began to frequent the campus Arcade, playing Street Fighter games alongside software developers. “Those guys were really good. I decided to put hours into practicing with the goal of being able to beat them in the games,” he said. He also struck up a conversation with one developer in particular, who worked at Oculus, telling the developer of his interest in technology. “The developer offered to help me learn code. I ended up meeting with him regularly, and was always studying and asking questions,” Young said. “I was so blown away that he gave me so much of his time. I learned that people are willing to do that for you if you are passionate and willing put in the time and effort.” Young became convinced that he could land a position at Oculus if he worked really hard. “I just started coming into work up to six hours early to work on projects that my mentor gave me and to do some self-study about making video games, animation and comic books,” he said. People began to take notice of Young as he studied frenetically, fueled by coffee and almonds, at all hours of the day and night. Soon, he was invited to apply for a position at Oculus, and he’s been working in his current position – the lead quality assurance analyst for Oculus Arcade – since March 2016. Young loves the way VR combines technology and art. “Most people think they are complete opposites,” he said. “While VR is very technical it’s also very artistic and creative in the way it delivers immersive experiences.” Looking to the Future The male student voted “Best Techie” for O’Dowd’s Class of 2009, Young has his sights set on becoming a software engineer, and eventually would like to own his own company and produce video games, animation and comic books. “I want to be able to lead content generation,” he said. He says his O’Dowd experience had a major impact on him, particularly the encouragement he received from art department chairperson Thien Pham. “He was the one who taught me how to draw,” Young said. “He really encouraged me and I just kept getting better and better.”

O’Dowd’s String Orchestra and Symphonic Band hosted this year’s Lillian Black Festival which was a super successful event with music and dance groups from throughout the Oakland Diocese representing their excellent arts programs. We look forward to next year’s festival and are already planning it!

Coder Kai Morton ’17 was featured in an American Eagle video profile, and Henry Zaballos ’10 was the cinematographer on the project.